@AidanRKelly

3 months ago

The ideas at the end about dialogue with a conscience that can err resonates with me a lot. For many years I was a slave to that small voice -- compulsive thoughts etc otherwise would be overcome by guilt. Then I said to heck with that and for years I tried to just ignore that voice. Turns out that doesn't work very well either, bc the guilt is pretty hard to suppress. Finally I'm realizing that there is more than one voice that speaks to you -- an angel and a devil you might say (though it's probably not that simple) -- and the best course of action is to GIVE THE VOICE A FAIR HEARING. Hear what it tells you to do/not to do, articulate that explicitly, then ask WHY it wants you to do that, ask yourself whether you really believe that voice is reasonable, ask yourself if you just want to avoid it bc it's asking difficult and inconvenient things of you, and then make your decision. I'm starting to thing that the conscience is not only the voice that whispers to you but also the faculty for hearing out and judging the validity of that voice's claims. Also recognize the need to form your conscience well (the Catholic Church emphasizes this point in the catechism I believe), according to what is true, good, beautiful, loving etc (in other words according to God's law).

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