CONSCIENCE: AN OWNER'S MANUAL

Just as any appliance will work properly only when it is used and maintained according to the manufacturer’s intent, so it is with our conscience. That little voice inside us which tells us what is right and wrong needs to be properly understood if we are to follow it with impunity. We all have many voices within us urging us to do various things. How do we discern between them? The Catechism of the Catholic Church tell us that “a human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience.” Yet, we know from experience that either out of ignorance or passion, we can make erroneous judgments for which we must pay the consequences. This manual is designed to help the reader avoid such pitfalls.

About the Author: James Penrice, the married father of three and the Director of Religious Education at St. Mary’s Parish in Spring Lake, Michigan, is the author of six very popular Alba House titles: Crossing Home: The Spiritual Lessons of Baseball (1993); Goal to Go: The Spiritual Lessons of Football (1994); God Could Be a Teen, Nobody Understands Him Either: Catholic Moral Teaching for Teens (1996); If There Is a God, Why Do I Need Braces?: The Teachings of the Church for Adolescents (1997); You Know More Than You Think: Your Intuitive Knowledge of God in the Catholic Tradition (2003); and A New Dad’s Guide to Playing God: Reflections on the Vocation of Fatherhood (2004).