Refer to our Sunday Experience pages to find different prayers to pray as a family sometime during the week as well as setting up a prayer space and other activities as a family.
For the Learn do the following:
1. Watch Video at the top of the page. (if you want more resources, or are interested in learning more about the topic click on the Extra tab).
2. Click on the appropriate grade for your child.
3. Read the "relates to..." section at the beginning. This is helpful to understand what to convey to your child is important about this lesson. It will help make the lesson both an intellectual and a lived lesson.
4. Read through and familiarize yourself with the sample script.
5. Teach your child the lesson, either using your own words or the sample script.
6. Either discuss the questions with your child (best option), or have your child write out answers to the questions.
7. Have your child do the activities and/or do the activities with them.
8. If working with a parish return the appropriate material in the way they have requested.
All Content for "The Way", Learn, is original content and copyright of the Diocese of Kalamazoo and may not be copied, reproduced, or used without prior written consent of the Diocese of Kalamazoo. © 2020 Diocese of Kalamazoo
Relates to Jesus: Jesus has free will just like we do. Even though He could have he did not interfere with anyone’s free will when it came to those who betrayed Him. He respects our freedom, as our free choice to love Him makes us the height of creation.
Relates to my Faith: Jesus died for us while we were still sinners. To know that God loves us even as we are sinners is good. He desires to be with us and help us to overcome these sins, but we are not worth less because of these sins.
Sample Script:
When God created human beings, He gave them the power to make choices! Choices mean we get to pick the things we do and how we do them. When we make different choices, sometimes they are good choices that do the right thing, but sometimes they are bad choices that end up doing the wrong thing. A good choice is when we do something that makes the world a better place. It can be something like sharing our favorite toy with our friend, helping our parents around the house, or doing the best we can with our homework! A bad choice is something that hurts the people around us. A bad choice might be hitting somebody when we don’t need to, not listening to our parents, or not doing something that we know we’re supposed to do. Since we have the power to choose, we have to also take responsibility for our actions. When we do something wrong, we need to say that we’re sorry and try to make things right.
Even though we make bad choices sometimes, that doesn’t mean we become bad people! Sometimes our pets do the wrong things, but that doesn’t mean we don’t love them anymore. We know that they can be better if we give them a chance, and that the wrong thing they did doesn’t take away from them being a good pet! A soccer ball can sometimes hurt somebody or break something important, but that doesn’t mean the soccer ball turns bad! The ball is still made to do good things like play a fun game. It’s kind of similar to you and me. When we make bad choices, it’s a serious thing we should be sorry for, but that doesn’t mean we become bad people. God made you very good and He loves you very much. He made you with a plan in mind and He made you to do good things. Even when we make the wrong choice, those parts of us are still true. We are always able to change and do the right thing no matter what. When we decide to do the right thing even when it’s hard, we make our parents and God very, very happy. When we decide to say we’re sorry and make things right after we did something wrong, that makes them very, very happy too.
Questions:
What does making choices mean?
What is a good choice? What is a bad choice?
What does it mean to take responsibility for our choices?
When we make bad choices, does that mean we become bad people? Why not?
What is another name for a bad choice that we have learned at church?
Activities:
Have your child draw a picture of a good action and a bad action. Ask them to draw how they can make the bad action right!
Work together to come up with a list of good actions your child can do at home and at school. Try to do one together to start.
Relates to Jesus: Jesus came to restore our fallen human nature from sin (originated in the Garden of Eve with the help of Satan the Deceiver) through His passion and death on a cross at Calvery.
Relates to my Faith: Human nature is plagued with concupscience, which draws us to sin, but the grace of God given through the Sacraments and the Holy Spirit in the Church seeks to keep us and free us from all harm. This battle between sin and life will rage untl Jesus Christ returns to judge us all.
Sample Script:
God made us out of pure love. He created us so that we could be in relationship with Him and live our lives with Him. When God first created Adam and Eve, the first human beings, they lived together perfectly. They made the right choices, working with God, and living holy lives. But then something terrible happened. The devil tempted Adam and Eve to make the wrong choice and disobey God. It brought sin into the world. This hurt mankind’s relationship with God. But the good news is, God has given us a way to make things better!
When Jesus came into the world, He went on a mission to save us from our sins. When He spent time in the desert, the devil tempted Him just like the devil tempted Adam and Eve, but Jesus made the right choices even though it was hard, and He stayed obedient to His Father. Jesus lived a holy life and sacrificed His life by dying on the cross and rising so that we could be freed from our sins. By doing this, He won the war against sin and death and allowed us to access incredible graces. These graces help us to make the right choices.
We can always ask for these graces by praying to the Holy Spirit! The most powerful way to access these graces is through the gift of the Sacraments. Receiving the Sacraments bring us closer to God and help us to be holy! We can also ask our guardian angels to help us fight temptations from the devil. God has given us each our own special guardian angel to help us on our journey to heaven. Our guardian angel is like a superhero who helps to save us from trouble. Our angel is meant to be our friend and teacher. Praying for help to our guardian angel is always a good idea!
God wants us to be holy and repair our relationship with Him. Our sins hurt us and our relationship with God. By coming back to Him and saying we are sorry in the Sacrament of Confession, He will forgive us and we can receive the graces He won for us so we can stay away from sin. By always coming back to God and asking for His help, we can overcome the temptations from the devil, and choose to live holy lives which will lead to us becoming Saints in Heaven one day!
Questions:
How was our relationship with God damaged?
How did Jesus save us from our sins?
What should we do when we sin?
How can we fight temptation?
What guidance to do what is right did God send to us through Moses?
Activities:
Say a prayer to your guardian angel. Thank him for watching over you and taking care of you all your life. Ask him to continue to guide you and help you to fight temptation.
Think about a recent time that you did not make a good choice. What could you have done differently? Talk to a parent or someone you respect about what they think you could have done.
Relates to Jesus: Jesus, as the Son of God, loves us and doesn't do anything without our yes, respecting our free will to choose Him.
Relates to my Faith: Man is meant to be free in his pursuit of fulfillment in this life. Being inspired by the Holy Spirit and listening to the promptings of his heart, he will be brought to fulfillment in life with the loving God.
Sample Script:
The Bible tells us that God created mankind “in His image and likeness.” Being created in God’s image and likeness is a great gift that no other creature on earth has. One of the biggest gifts that comes from being made in this awesome way is our free will.
The gift of our free will allows us to make the right choices even when it may be difficult. Free will means you have the freedom to make good choices or bad choices. Nobody can force you to do the wrong thing. You always have the power to do what’s right. Can you think of a time when you wanted to do something you shouldn’t, but you decided to do the right thing anyway? Maybe you did an extra chore your parents didn’t ask you to do. Maybe you said something nice to one of your siblings or your friends. Maybe you forgave somebody who hurt you. Maybe it was something as little as saying no to an extra piece of cake because you know it wouldn’t be good to eat too much. You were able to do all those good things because you have the gift of free will. This power lets us be heroes and lead amazing, inspiring lives.
Our free will also allow us to make wrong choices. When these choices hurt our relationship with God they are called sins. When we make wrong choices and commit sins, it affects our conscience, making it harder to know what the right thing to do is. When our conscience is in this state, it’s called concupiscence. Concupiscence makes it easier for us to be tempted to make the wrong choices. This can lead to repeated sinful acts which eventually creates bad habits. Habits are something we practice doing over and over until they become a part of who we are, almost like second nature.
When a sin becomes a habit, it’s called a vice. We can combat vice and concupiscence, however, by embracing God’s gift of grace and practicing good habits. We can embrace God’s grace by praying, reading the bible, practicing sacramentals, and participating in the Sacraments. Practicing good habits especially is something that helps us as well as those around us to be better. It simply means doing our best to follow God’s will. When we practice these good habits infused with God’s grace, they become virtues. Virtue means they have good qualities like being patient, caring about others more than we, and being strong in doing the right things through hard times.
God has given us an awesome power of free will since we are made in His image and likeness. We can use this power to do the wrong thing which can hurt our conscience and form concupiscence. By practicing virtue, relying on the grace of God and doing good works, we can overcome sin and vice. Jesus came to give us the power to live virtuously and He wants to work with us and through us to make us holy Saints!
Questions:
What does our free will mean?
What is concupiscence?
What is a habit?
What is vice?
What is virtue?
Activities:
Make a list of some good habits you can work on to help you grow in virtue and fight off vice and concupiscence! Maybe you want to practice listening better so you can grow in patience. Maybe you want to try to be a little happier when you’re doing your chores, so you can show your parents that you love them. Ask God to help you with whatever you decide to work and to help you grow in virtue!
Ask someone older than you about a time they had to fight off concupiscence and choose to act virtuously. Take time this week to pray for your friends and family, so that all of you can grow in virtue together and break free of sin!
Relates to Jesus: Jesus shows us the what the will of God is, to love God and love neighbor, and we are to follow lovingly as His disciples.
Relates to my Faith: Making good choices day in and day out helps to form us in virtue and thus attune our heart to recognize the voice of God speaking to us through our conscience.
Sample Script:
The gift of our free will allows us to make the right choices even when it may be difficult. Free will means you have the freedom to make good choices or bad choices. Nobody can force you to do the wrong thing. You always have the power to do what’s right. Can you think of a time when you wanted to do something you shouldn’t, but you decided to do the right thing anyway? Maybe you did an extra chore your parents didn’t ask you to do. Maybe you said something nice to one of your siblings or your friends. Maybe you forgave somebody who hurt you. You were able to do all those good things because you have the gift of free will. This power lets us be heroes and lead amazing, inspiring lives.
Even though our free will is meant for us to make good choices, we can also use our free will to make wrong choices. These choices hurt ourselves, the people around us, and our relationship with God. When our choices hurt our relationship with God and the people around us, they are called sins. Ultimately, choosing between the right thing and the wrong thing is choosing whether we want to love God or do what is evil. God made us to be in relationship with Him. He loves us infinitely, meaning He never stops loving us and He always wants us to do the right thing, so we can be together with Him in Heaven. When we choose to follow God by listening to the teachings of Jesus and His Church, we become His disciples!
How do we make sure we are making the right choices, so we can be disciples of Jesus? To do this, we need to make sure we have a well-formed conscience. Our conscience is a gift from God that helps to tell us what is right from wrong. Whenever you just have a feeling that something is the right decision or you have something in your mind that tells you what you think the right thing to do is, that is your conscience helping you. God speaks to us through our conscience to help guide us and keep us on the right path. Depending on the choices we make, we can have a well-formed conscience or a mal-formed conscience. When something hasn’t been used for a long time or if something has been used in the wrong way, eventually it doesn’t work right! If you use your favorite toy like a hammer, eventually it will probably get broken. If you leave food out too long without eating it, eventually it goes bad and it’s not good to eat anymore.
A mal-formed conscience happens when we don’t use our conscience or we don’t use it like we’re supposed to. It makes it easy to make the wrong choices, or we can even start thinking that the wrong choices are actually good ones. Just like exercising our body and eating healthy foods, we need to make sure we exercise our conscience to help it to grow and that we feed it good spiritual foods so that it can stay strong. We can exercise our conscience by practicing virtue and making the right choices over and over again. We can feed our conscience good spiritual foods by making sure we are praying often and learning about good things that feed our soul like reading from the Bible, watching a good video that teaches us about God, or anything that helps you to learn how to be a better follower of Christ.
Making the right choices isn’t always easy, but we don’t have to do it alone or without help! There are three things you can do to help you make a good decision: ask, listen, and think. When we have to decide what the right thing to do is, you should always try to ask for help. You can talk to a trusted adult like a parent, teacher, or priest, and you should always make sure you talk to God by praying to Him. Always ask God to help you know what the right thing to do is and to give you the strength to do it. You can also ask to find out more information about the choice you are going to make. You might not know everything you need to know to make a good decision yet! Make sure you listen to what your conscience is telling you. What do you think and feel the right choice is? What is God telling you? Don’t rush your decisions if you can help it. Make sure you give yourself time to really think about it. Make sure you are considering how your choice will affect the people around you. Ask yourself, will this make the people around me better? Will this help me to be a better person? Why do I want to make this decision? These are not the only parts to making a good decision, but it’s a great place to start learning!
Just as an example, let’s say James was invited by his friend Mark to go over his house for a sleepover. James hasn’t gotten to spend time with Mark in a long time, so he really just wants to say yes and go with Mark right now, but he also knows from asking his parents that he should talk to his parents first before he gives Mark an answer. He takes a second to listen to what his conscience is saying to him. James thinks he should tell Mark that he has to ask his parents first and then ask Mark a few questions to learn more about the sleepover. James thinks about everything he knows. He knows that his parents would want him to wait and ask them and that his conscience thinks that’s the right thing to do even though it’s hard. He knows he will make his parents and God very happy by doing the right thing. James chooses to listen to his conscience, and he says he will have to give Mark an answer later. He asks Mark what time the sleepover will be, how far away does he live, and will his parents be home? Mark made a good decision by not rushing, listening to his conscience, doing what he thought was right, and asking for more information. Now whether or not he gets to go on a sleepover, James knows he did the right thing by asking his parents first.
By making the right choice, even in little things, we are choosing to follow God. The more we do this, the more we grow in virtue, and are able to form our conscience to help us make even better decisions. The more we grow and the more we learn about choosing the right thing, the closer we get to becoming Saints and being true disciples of Jesus.
Questions:
What is our free will?
What is our conscience?
What is a mal-formed conscience?
What can we do to have a well-formed conscience?
How do we make good decisions?
Activities:
Think about the things that you already do that help you to have a well-formed conscience. What things might you be doing that move you towards a mal-formed conscience? Ask God to help you choose the things that are helping you form a good conscience. Make a list of those good habits and keep doing them!
Write down ways you can make good decisions. Make a list of steps you can take to help you know the right thing to do. It can be things already talked about in this lesson, or your own ideas!
Relates to Jesus: Jesus teaches that the path to life is narrow but to follow Him as a disciple, continually reaching for Him through the ups and downs of life, grace will be given to walk on this path with and to Jesus.
Relates to my Faith: It is important for the disciple to be a witness to the truth found in our faith, which serves as a mediator to assist souls in finding the path of life.
Sample Script:
Making the right choices isn’t always easy, but we don’t have to do it alone or without help. There are three things you can do to help you make a good decision: ask, listen, and think. When we have to decide what the right thing to do is, you should always try to ask for help. You can talk to a trusted adult like a parent, teacher, or priest, and you should always make sure you talk to God by praying to Him. Always ask God to help you know what the right thing to do is and to give you the strength to do it. You can also ask to find out more information about the choice you are going to make. You might not know everything you need to know to make a good decision yet! Make sure you listen to what your conscience is telling you. What do you think and feel the right choice is? What is God telling you? Don’t rush your decisions if you can help it. Make sure you give yourself time to really think about it. Make sure you are considering how your choice will affect the people around you. Ask yourself, will this make the people around me better? Will this help me to be a better person? Why do I want to make this decision?
Sometimes it’s easy to think that doing the wrong thing isn’t a big deal. We don’t think we’re hurting anybody, especially if we can get away with it. The reality is, when we sin and make wrong choices, we end up damaging our relationship with God, we damage our own souls, we hurt the Church community, and the people around us. You and I are made to do the right thing. We are made to have a holy relationship with God and healthy relationships with people around us. When we sin, are intentionally disobeying God and going against the purpose that He gave us. This creates unrest in our hearts, robbing us of our inner peace. It can disturb our conscience, making us feel guilty. By making the wrong choices, we start to teach ourselves that they are okay even if they are destructive.
Even if we steal something small and nobody notices, we are telling the person that we stole from that they don’t matter. We are teaching ourselves that other people and their possessions are not important. We tell God that what He has been trying to teach us is wrong. We might not mean to say these things, but it is what our wrong actions convey whether we want them to or not. The members of the Church are responsible for making the world a better place by living holy and righteous lives. You and I are meant to represent Christ on earth. When we fall into sin, even small ones, we are telling the world that the Church does not care about what is true and right or about other people. Sometimes we might not see the consequences of our actions. We may think we have gotten away with our sins when really we have damage the unity of the Church and hurt the people around us. When you and I don’t live up to who we are supposed to be, the world misses out on an awesome person. The wrong choices we make are so damaging, because we have the amazing potential to do incredibly good things that can change lives. When we don’t live up to that, the world suffers.
The sad reality is that we make wrong choices every day, and that goes for every human being. Nobody is perfect. The good news is, we can always turn things around. We can always make things right. We can always turn back to God when we do something wrong. We can ask for His forgiveness and for the strength to do the right thing. By choosing to grow in virtue little by little each day, we make repairs for the sins of the world, by allowing the grace of Jesus to work in our lives. Just as the little sins we commit can do more damage than we think, the good choices we make do infinitely more good than we can possibly imagine. By doing little gestures with great love, we can convey to someone that they matter, that they are loved, and they have a purpose in this world. We can heal our own souls and bring peace to our lives. Our choices matter, and even the little ones can make a big difference.
Questions:
What are some keys to making a good decision?
How do our sins and wrong choices effect ourselves, our relationship with God, and those around us?
How can our good choices and personal virtue combat these evils?
Who is our life supposed to be a reflection of?
What are some good questions to ask about when we are making a decision?
Activities:
Spend some time this week praying for the Church and for our world, asking forgiveness from God for all of our sins, and that He might give us the strength to overcome our evils.
Take some time to reflect on the people around you. Do you see yourself making a positive or negative impact on their lives? Think about ways you can start doing more good for them by being a better version of yourself.
Relates to Jesus: Jesus calls all to holiness, to give praise to God and to live life loving God and loving neighbor.
Relates to my Faith: Living a moral life as laid out by God in the Ten Commandments, his Son Jesus Christ through the Gospel, and supported by the Church fulfills all of Scripture and puts us on the path to heavenly reward.
Sample Script:
As we go through life, we get told that different things are important. We might get told that our feelings are most important, making money is what’s most important, or that our own power to choose whatever we want is what’s most important. These are some of the messages we might hear in the media of TV, movies, the internet, or whatever it may be. The media is a great source of information and entertainment. There are a lot of good things we can learn and experience through the media, but we need to be aware of the lessons that it is teaching us.
The Catholic Church teaches us morality that is based on truth. It teaches us that what is true is not always what we think or what we want, but that we can learn the truth and learn to make the right choices. What you might hear from the modern world is that truth is subjective. Subjective truth means that you get to decide what is true. The Church teaches that truth is objective meaning that what is true is true no matter what you and I think it is. Even though I might think my pen is a banana and I really want it to be a banana, because I’m hungry, that won’t change the fact that my pen is a pen. The world teaches that all truth comes from us. The Church teaches that all truth comes from God.
The media often teaches us that we should make our decisions because “it feels right” or it teaches us to do things simply because we want to. Our emotions are not bad! They can help us to make good choices, especially if we have a well-formed conscience that naturally wants to do the right thing. However, our emotions can also be unreliable and deceptive. Just because I want something or feel that it’s right, doesn’t mean that it’s true or that it’s good for me. I may want to steal a million dollars from the bank to be rich or I may want to eat a lot of junk food because it feels good, but I know that these things would be wrong. They would be harmful to me and to others. I need to also think rationally about what is right. I need to base my decision off of what is true objectively regardless of how I may be feeling at the time. Ultimately, when we accustom ourselves to making the right choices by forming good habits, our emotions follow suit. We end up feeling happier, more satisfied, and fulfilled in the long term than by following our emotions and being happy for only a little while.
God wants our happiness more than we do. He cares about us more than we care about ourselves. He created us to live in relationship with Him and end up enjoying eternal joy with Him in Heaven. God created us to do amazing and good things in this world. He wants us to be amazing people. When we fall and act against who God made us to be, we damage our relationship with Him. These sinful acts hurt us, the people around us, the Church, and God. There are two kinds of sin: mortal sin and venial sin. A mortal sin is a serious sin that destroys the divine power of love in a person’s heart while venial sins are less serious sins that strain our relationship with God. No sin is good for us, even if it is small. Venial sins usually lead us to committing mortal sins if we don’t deal with them. God knows that we are broken, that we fall and make mistakes. He still loves us and wants to forgive us. We should never be afraid to ask for His forgiveness and get back up to try and make things right. We can’t overcome sin without God’s help. We need to rely on His grace through prayer and participation in the Sacraments. By living a life built on righteousness, reliance on God’s grace, and forming good habits, we can combat and overcome the sin in our lives, restoring our relationship with God.
How do we make sure we are making the right choices and forming good habits? The first thing we need to do is make sure we have a well-formed conscience. God speaks to us through our conscience to help guide us and keep us on the right path. Depending on the choices we make, we can have a well-formed conscience or a mal-formed conscience which can make it easier or harder to hear God’s voice. When something hasn’t been used for a long time or if something has been used in the wrong way, eventually it doesn’t work like it’s supposed to. If you are trying to use a stick like a hammer, eventually it will probably get broken. If you leave food out too long without eating it, eventually it goes bad and it’s not good to eat anymore.
A mal-formed conscience happens when we don’t use our conscience, or we don’t use it like we’re supposed to. This makes it easy to sin, or we can even start thinking that the wrong choices are actually good for us. Just like exercising our body and eating healthy foods, we need to make sure we exercise our conscience to help it to grow and that we feed it good spiritual foods so that it can stay strong. We can exercise our conscience by practicing virtue and making the right choices repeatedly. We can feed our conscience good spiritual foods by making sure we are praying often and learning about good things that feed our soul like reading from the Bible, taking in good media that teaches us about truth, or anything that helps you to learn how to be a better follower of Christ.
You might find yourself making different choices and having difficult conversations in life where it’s hard for your conscience to discern what the right thing to do is. In these times, always take time to say a prayer, even if it’s just a quick few seconds asking for help. Think about your options and everything that you do know that can help to inform your conscience. If you have time, see if you can find out more by talking to someone wise, asking questions to people you trust, and doing some research. Once you know as much as you can, make the best decision you can think of, doing what you think is right based on what you know to be true. Make sure to offer your decision to God. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes, because you can always grow and learn from them. What’s important is that you invite God into the decision and base it off of what is true objectively and not just what feels right at the time.
By always seeking truth over our own preferences or emotions and by seeking the help of God’s grace to act righteously and overcome sin, we become holy men and women of God. We become instruments of His grace who little by little shape the world by loving the people around us.
Questions:
What is the message of the world and the media as opposed to the Church? Is the media all bad?
Are our emotions bad?
What is subjective truth and objective truth? Which should we base our decisions off of and why?
What is mortal sin and venial sin? How do we combat sin and create a well-formed conscience?
What should we do when faced with difficult choices and conversations?
Activities:
Talk to a trusted adult about a time he or she had to make a difficult decision. How do they make their choice? Would they have done anything differently?
Examine some of the media you take in during the day, whether social media, tv, movies, etc. Think about what lessons this media is teaching you. Write at least two paragraphs about what kinds of lessons you are choosing to take in through the media and whether or not it is making you a better version of yourself.
Relates to Jesus: Jesus knows well the reality of temptation and sin and how repeated sin can lead to vice. He comes to set us free from the chains of sin through His saving grace. In humble prayer, we are to call out to Jesus to send His Holy Spirit upon us to protect and guide us. This is a prayer that does not go unheard!
Relates to my Faith: The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a gift from the Church who knows her children well and that in our life we will make mistakes. Like any good parent, God loves a repentant heart and does not hesitate to run out to might him.
Sample Script:
God has made you with amazing talents and gifts. He has given you a unique purpose in the world that no one else has. He wants you to use your talents to live up to your purpose and make the world a better place. It might take a long time to find our purpose in life, some people don’t figure out what they’re supposed to do until they are much older than you or me. What we can do in the meantime is focus on growing in our understanding of how to live a good life based on the right moral choices.
How do we make sure we are making the right choices and forming good habits? The first thing we need to do is make sure we have a well-formed conscience. God speaks to us through our conscience to help guide us and keep us on the right path. Depending on the choices we make, we can have a well-formed conscience or a mal-formed conscience which can make it easier or harder to hear God’s voice. When something hasn’t been used for a long time or if something has been used in the wrong way, eventually it doesn’t work like it’s supposed to. If you are trying to use a stick like a hammer, eventually it will probably get broken. If you leave food out too long without eating it, eventually it goes bad and it’s not good to eat anymore.
A mal-formed conscience happens when we don’t use our conscience, or we don’t use it like we’re supposed to. This makes it easy to sin, or we can even start thinking that the wrong choices are actually good for us. When we repeat sin and make a habit of it, it becomes the opposite of a virtue, which is called a vice. A vice is like a part of us that becomes twisted and misshapen. The good parts of us that God created become deformed and aren’t used like they are supposed to be. Vices lead us to commit what are called the seven deadly sins. These seven sins are: pride, greed, lust, wrath, gluttony, envy, and sloth. These sins are called deadly, because they destroy the goodness of our human nature and those around us. They lead us to living lives that are below the amazing purpose God made us with. This is why a mal-formed conscience is so dangerous.
Just like exercising our body and eating healthy foods, we need to make sure we exercise our conscience to help it to grow and that we feed it good spiritual foods so that it can stay strong. We can exercise our conscience by practicing virtue and making the right choices repeatedly. We can feed our conscience good spiritual foods by making sure we are praying often and learning about good things that feed our soul like reading from the Bible, taking in good media that teaches us about truth, or anything that helps you to learn how to be a better follower of Christ.
The moral teaching of the truth is based on truth, specifically the truth that God made each and every one of us with dignity and purpose. Because of this truth, the Church harshly condemns acts that do not honor the dignity of the people around us. It condones acts such as murder, inappropriate sexual acts, abortion, undue violence, and consuming harmful substances from drugs to tv or movies that are based on false or inappropriate messages. The Church does not teach on these subjects for no reason, or because it wants to make life difficult, or even because it does not want you to be happy. Everything the Church teaches is meant to elevate the dignity of the human person. The Church wants you to be truly happy based on things that fulfill you and lead to eternal happiness with God in Heaven. We need to constantly remind ourselves of God’s great love for us, remembering that He made you and me as incredible beings with amazing purpose. Once we realize that, it is easier to apply this to the other people in our lives, realizing that they are made with the same love and purpose with which God created us. In this context, the teachings of the Church make more sense and form a cohesive, whole message lifting up the dignity of the human person. We need to continuously learn and educate ourselves, devoting our thoughts to the issues of our time, so that we can know what is truly good and supportive of the dignity of God’s creation.
Our personal moral education is the responsibility of every human being. We have the capacity to learn right from wrong and if we neglect to do so, we are choosing to live up to the amazing purpose God created us with. We stop ourselves from being able to truly make the world a better place, because we are not educated on what the right thing to do is. There are times when we act in ignorance which can excuse us from the moral responsibility of our action. If I throw a ball, not knowing somebody is about to turn the corner and walk right in the path of what I am throwing, it doesn’t make sense to condemn me for hitting that person with a ball. I truly did not know that I would hurt somebody. This is called invincible ignorance, where you are not at fault. However, if you choose not to check and see if people are in the way of where you are throwing, you are neglecting to do something that you can and should be doing in order to make the right decision of whether or not to throw the ball. In that case, I would be at fault, because I could have prevented anyone from being hurt by looking first. This is called vincible ignorance, when you can and should know something important to a moral act, but you choose to neglect to know it.
We are all on a journey of learning about truth, morality, and how to be the best version of ourselves. We need to keep asking for advice from wise counselors and teachers. Whenever we have a question, we can and should always seek the answer by devoting time, thought, and research into finding the answer. Jesus gave us the Church as a gift so we would always have been to learn from and support us, as well as a wellspring of knowledge to draw from. Christ is always there to help us with His grace. He wants us to grow in virtue and wisdom so we can live up to the amazing purpose He created us with.
Questions:
What is a well-formed versus a mal-formed conscience? How do we form our consciences well?
What is vice? What are the seven deadly sins?
What is the moral teaching of the Church based on?
What is vincible and invincible ignorance?
Why is it important to continuously educate ourselves on moral matters?
Activities:
Write out a list of questions you have always had about the Catholic Church. Pick one or two that stick out to you as the ones you are most excited to figure out. Take time this week to research the answers by asking people you trust and looking into resources of the Church (documents, the Catechism, the YouCat, Scripture, etc).
Research the seven deadly sins. What do each of them mean? How do they keep you from being the best version of yourself?
Relates to Jesus: Jesus provides us with many tools in the fight against personal sin: Himself in the Eucharist, the grace of the Holy Spirit present in the Sacraments, Scripture and prayer, and loving souls found around us to name a few.
Relates to my Faith: The role of the Holy Spirit in the virtuous life is not to be underestimated. Following the Fruits of the Holy Spirit in our life brings us to be the children of God that we are called to be.
Sample Script:
The St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians in the bible, he exhorts them to avoid the ways of the “flesh” which involve giving into our desires and temptations, letting them control us to do things even though we know they are wrong and aren’t good for. In contrast to this, St. Paul talks about the “fruits of the Holy Spirit.” These include love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These fruits act as signs to the world that God truly live and acts in the life of the Christian. These characteristics separate him from the people around him. To love, to live joyfully, to be at peace even under stress, to be patient when people seek to aggravate you, to be kind to everyone around you, to seek goodness, to be faithful to God and our promises, to be gentleness to lowly, and to exhibit control over ourselves when faced with temptation are not traits that the world teaches. They come from God’s work in our lives and when we notice them in ourselves and others, we should treat them as a precious gift, encouraging, fostering, and protecting them so that they can continue to grow.
Members of the Church are meant to be ambassadors of Christ in the world. We are meant to model ourselves after the way Jesus lived, so that we can show our neighbors the love that God has for them through our own lives. When we fail at this, the whole Church suffers. God knows how difficult this can be. It’s easy to not want to stand out. It’s much easier to want to blend in with the crowd, to even be supportive of people who intend to do the wrong thing, because we care about them and we don’t want to hurt them by contradicting them. However, when we support or allow evil, we become responsible. If someone knows that their friend is going to do something that will hurt them, but doesn’t do anything to stop them when they have the power to, that person becomes responsible for the hurt that his friend inflicts on himself. We have a responsibility to care for one another and to help each other to do the right thing.
The Catholic Church teaches us morality that is based on truth. It teaches us that what is true is not always what we think or what we want, but that we can learn the truth and learn to make the right choices. What you might hear from the modern world is that truth is subjective. Subjective truth means that you get to decide what is true. The Church teaches that truth is objective meaning that what is true is true no matter what you and I think it is. Even though I might think my pen is a banana and I really want it to be a banana, because I’m hungry, that won’t change the fact that my pen is a pen. The world teaches that all truth comes from us. The Church teaches that all truth comes from God.
The world often teaches us that we should make our decisions because “it feels right” or it teaches us to do things simply because we want to. Our emotions are not bad! They can help us to make good choices, especially if we have a well-formed conscience that naturally wants to do the right thing. However, our emotions can also be unreliable and deceptive. Just because I want something or feel that it’s right, doesn’t mean that it’s true or that it’s good for me. I may want to steal a million dollars from the bank to be rich or I may want to eat a lot of junk food because it feels good, but I know that these things would be wrong. They would be harmful to me and to others. I need to also think rationally about what is right. I need to base my decision off of what is true objectively regardless of how I may be feeling at the time. Ultimately, when we accustom ourselves to making the right choices by forming good habits, our emotions follow suit. We end up feeling happier, more satisfied, and fulfilled in the long term than by following our emotions and being happy for only a little while.
Our personal moral education is the responsibility of every human being. We have the capacity to learn right from wrong and if we neglect to do so, we are choosing to live up to the amazing purpose God created us with. We stop ourselves from being able to truly make the world a better place, because we are not educated on what the right thing to do is. There are times when we act in ignorance which can excuse us from the moral responsibility of our action. If I throw a ball, not knowing somebody is about to turn the corner and walk right in the path of what I am throwing, it doesn’t make sense to condemn me for hitting that person with a ball. I truly did not know that I would hurt somebody. This is called invincible ignorance, where you are not at fault. However, if you choose not to check and see if people are in the way of where you are throwing, you are neglecting to do something that you can and should be doing in order to make the right decision of whether or not to throw the ball. In that case, I would be at fault, because I could have prevented anyone from being hurt by looking first. This is called vincible ignorance, when you can and should know something important to a moral act, but you choose to neglect to know it.
We should never be afraid to do the right thing. God promises to take care of us and offers eternal life in Heaven to those who are willing to do the right thing even at the cost of personal suffering. While the pains in this life are temporary, the joy that we can gain will last forever and will never diminish. When we risk standing out against the crowd out of love for God and neighbor, we can find a real freedom in knowing we are doing the right thing and in knowing no matter what happens, God will take care of us. When we do the right thing and seek to care for the people around us by sharing the truth out of love, they may not accept it, but you will have shown that you are a true friend who cares for their well being and who wants what’s best for them. When we radiate the fruits of the Holy Spirit, we find ourselves filled with a joy and peace that spreads to the people around us, inspiring them to grow and seek out holiness too.
Questions:
What are the fruits of the Holy Spirit and why are they important?
Why is it so important not to cooperate with evil even when we aren’t doing the evil ourselves?
What is the moral teaching of the Church based on?
What is vincible and invincible ignorance?
Why is it important to continuously educate ourselves on moral matters?
Why should we never be afraid to do the right thing?
Activities:
Spend some time reflecting on the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Which of these do you find are present in your life most often? Which do you find are lacking? Pray to ask for the grace to receive all the fruits of the Holy Spirit and to know how to live that way.
Talk to a trusted adult about a time they shared the truth with someone. Did it go well? Would he or she have done anything differently?
Scripture References: John 14:6;
Catechism References: Nos. 1730-1986; 2030-2557 (Since this is an all encompassing section which includes an analysis and the implications of each of the Ten Commandments and the Six Precepts of the Church, which are our obligations if we are to call ourselves Catholic. A full discussion would be too much to cover here. So, we will narrow the subject to the basic principles of the moral life found in the CCC nos. 2031-2074, 2204. The faithful are directed to read and study the numbers in the full reference above for their edification and proper formation of moral conscience.)
Videos: Catholic Morality 101-Bishop Barron discusses modern moral thinking and its flaws as compared to authentic Catholic Moral teaching (33 mins)
Bishop Barron on Why What You Believes Matters Bishop Barron illustrates how what we believe influences the kind of people we are. The two are not unrelated. Our beliefs can have major influences, for good or for bad, on the totality of society. (9 m 23 s)
Extra Narrative (for Deeper Study)
Foundations of the Moral Life
In Catholic teaching, the foundation for all morality begins with our protogenitors, (i.e., our first parents) Adam and Eve, who were given one simple commandment,. "You may eat of any of the trees except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat of it for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die" (Gen 2:17). The story of Adam and Eve relates the reality of our relationship with the One who created us and all things "visible and invisible". It lays out for us in poetic and didactic genre the beauty and perfection of God's creation and explains why things went so terribly wrong in the form of one simple and seemingly harmless act of disobedience. This story relates the first time fully rational human beings violated the first and most basic commandment, we worshipped the creature rather than the creator. We put our will as superior to God's will. Adam and Eve's disobedience said, "We know better than God." It implied, "Why should I subjugate my will to God's? Am I not a god free to do as I please? Who is God to tell me what I should or should not do?" The consequences were horrendous. One look at human history tells the rest of the story of how that worked out and is working out!