The topic Is "forming your conscience"

[leonie]

I have six weeks to put together a 45 minute presentation on forming your conscience for high schoolers.

Taking suggestions on the talk

and taking suggestions on good background reading.

thanks!

[Willy Jose]

I posted something on my blog on the question:
Are we called morally good or bad when in striving to follow our conscience, we err?
Hope it is useful.
Good luck on your lecture and God bless.

[Joe 5859]

Ignatius Press has published On Conscience by Ratzinger. It's a few of his talks on the subject put into book form. Good stuff.

If you have access to the high school textbook Our Moral Life in Christ from the Didache Series, chapter 4 is all about the conscience and it's formation (as is Chapter 2 of the Semester Edition of the same title). The Semester edition, though shorter overall, actually has an expanded section on "How to Develop a Well-Formed Conscience" (pp. 52-54):

1. "Learn the moral teachings of the Catholic Church."
2. "Approach matters of faith and morals with an attitude of humility."
3. "Engage in sincere prayer and meditation."
4. "Develop and maintain a well-formed conscience through frequent and honest self-examination."
5. "Participate frequently in the Sacrament of Reconciliation."
6. "If possible, seek spiritual direction."

These are their bullet points, and they have explanations for each one. It seems like a good talk outline to me.