Download Call to Faith - OSV Curriculum

Call to Faith
Morality
Session 1
Freedom and Responsibility
Session Purpose
We are created in God’s image and blessed with the freedom to make choices. With this
freedom comes the responsibility to develop well-formed consciences in order to choose
what is good. In this session, young people will learn about and practice making good
moral choices.
Objectives
Learners will
 understand the kinds of choices that lead them away from God.
 explore what determines whether an action is good.
 practice the steps for making moral decisions and understand the tools they can use to
build a well-informed conscience.
Church Documents
For more background on session content, refer to Catechism paragraphs 46, 1711, 1713,
1745, 1757, 1760, 1761, 1796, 1798, 1871, and 1874–1876.
One of the most important tasks of the ministry of catechesis is to help individuals know
the moral law as taught by the Church so that they can form healthy consciences and
make proper moral decisions.
—See National Directory for Catechesis, 42
Catholics Believe
We are free to choose, responsible for our choices, and guided in our moral decision
making.
 God made us with a free will, an intellect, and a soul, and our conscience works
with these gifts so that we can choose to do good and avoid sin.
 Morally good actions require that their object, intention, and circumstance be
good; the end does not justify the means.
 A well-formed conscience will guide us to do what is right and good, and we can
make good decisions if we have the help of Christ’s teachings, the Church, the
Holy Spirit, prayer, and wise people.
Formation
Choices, choices, choices! Our lives are filled with moral choices. While the Church
teaches that a person’s first obligation is to follow one’s conscience, she also teaches that
a person’s conscience must be well-informed. Our best source of information as
Catholics is the teaching of our Church. For nearly 2,000 years, the Church has collected
an incredible treasure of moral teaching, formed by the revelation of God in Sacred
Scripture and illuminated through the centuries by the Magisterium.
When making choices, we don’t listen to our own appetites and biases, to what feels good
at the moment. Rather, we take into account the richness of what God has revealed to us
as good and holy.
What do you do to try to maintain a healthy, well-informed conscience?
Parent Prayer
Holy God, you have given me the incredible freedom to make my own decisions. Help me
to make life-giving choices, and to set a good example for my family. May my young
adolescent see your reflection in me, and may my desire be nothing more than to bring
my child to you. Amen.
Helping Your Young Adolescent Learn about Our Faith
 Young adolescents are faced with many new choices and decisions. As parents or
guardians, when we discuss moral behavior with our sons or daughters, we need to keep
in mind that they may be dealing with some of the behaviors. It is important for us to
have a posture of openness and willingness to listen to our children during this stage of
their moral development.
 As parents or guardians, we have a wonderful opportunity to consistently emphasize
that God is loving and merciful. We have a profound responsibility. The image of God
as the loving parent who desires a close and healthy relationship with each of us will
hopefully inspire our children to seek reconciliation.
Faith at Home Activity
Have a conversation in your household about the moral decisions you make. Share with
your young adolescent what resources you have found helpful in determining right from
wrong, and in following your conscience. Work together through a moral decision facing
a family member. Invite your child to share some of what he or she learned in this
session.
Resource Link
For more resources to use at home, see People of Faith—Generations Learning Together.
These magazines are designed to be used by families to promote faith learning,
conversation, and prayer at home.
 Living the Moral Life: Faithfulness
See also Faith at Home: Nurturing Households of Faith—a magazine that features
practical suggestions, articles, activities, and tips for sharing and celebrating faith
in the home. It also contains pages that relate specifically to this theme.
Additional resources to bring faith home to your family include Takeout: Family
Faith on the Go, a monthly mini-magazine that helps parents build faith-filled
families.
There’s also Catholic Parent Know-How, a series of booklets designed to help parents
in their role as primary educators of the faith.
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Morality
Living Faith
Church History
Church
Building Stronger Families
Peer Pressure
Why Do We Have to Go to Mass?
Internet & Families