Beatitude and Conscience

Beatitude
Beatitude=perfect happiness or blessedness
Take from Scripture
Mathew 5:3-12 & Luke 6:20-26
Beatitude
Blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the
Kingdom of Heaven
Blessed are those who
mourn, for they will be
comforted
Blessed are the meek, for
they will inherit the earth
Blessed are those who
hunger & thirst for
righteousness, for they will
be filled
Blessed are the merciful, for
they will receive mercy
Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they will see God
Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they will
be called children of God
Blessed are those who are
persecuted for righteousness
sake, for theirs is the
Kingdom of Heaven
Meaning
This calls us to put our
complete trust in God,
trusting that he will provide
for our needs. (Detachment
from material things)
We must have a
compassionate heart that
moves us to offer support
and mercy for those who are
suffering
Meekness does not mean
weakness. This calls us to
endure hardship with
patience and perseverance,
avoiding anger and
resentment.
This calls us to right
relationship with God &
with others by being
truthful, merciful, just &
compassionate
This calls us to be forgiving
when others’ actions hurt us,
and to ask forgiveness when
we hurt others
This calls us to desire to be
holy.
This rejects violence as a
solution to conflicts & to
work for just social
structures
This reminds us that to
follow Christ’s call we will
sometimes cause people
who don’t know Christ to
react angrily and negatively.
We endure their ridicule we
Endure their ridicule and
persecution with patience
and forgiveness.
Happiness
The Beatitudes reveal the goal of human
existence.
God puts us in the world to know, love, and
serve him, and so come into paradise.
Beatitudes helps us become like Christ and
enter into his Glory.
Living these shows us that true happiness is
not found in riches or well-being, in human
fame or power, or in any human
achievement. It lies in God alone, the
source of every good and of all love.
Continued on page 2
10 Ways to Help Form
Your Conscience
1. Receive the Eucharist-At mass our way of
thinking is attuned to the life-giving sacrifice
of Jesus for the world. The love of God in
turn strengthens our desire to seek truth and
act morally
2. Examine your conscience-Written
examinations of conscience can be found in
prayer books & missalettes, or at public
penance services during Lent and Advent
3. Go to Confession-Receive the sacrament of
Reconciliation often
4. Study and reflect on Scripture-The word of
God is the principal shaper of conscience
5. Pray-Pray always, seeking the Gifts of the
Holy Spirit
“I have come that you might have life,
and have it abundantly.”
--John 10:10
“It is Jesus in fact that you seek when you
dream of happiness; he is waiting for you
when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is
the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is
he who provokes you with that thirst for
fullness that will not let you settle for
compromise; it is he who urges you to shed
the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in
your hearts your most genuine choices, the
choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who
stirs in you the desire to do something great
with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the
refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded
down by mediocrity, the courage to commit
yourselves humbly and patiently to improving
yourselves and society, making the world
more human and more fraternal.”
-Saint John Paul the Great
6. Discover what the Church teaches and why
7. Every choice counts-Examine the moral
choices you make each day. They lead to
habits, and habits lead to virtues (or vices)
8. “Garbage in—garbage out”- Pay attention
to what you are choosing to watch, read and
listen to. Read and watch stories that inspire
virtue.
9. Choose good role models-Look for friends,
mentors and heroes who lead virtuous lives.
Learn about the lives of the saints!
10. Seek Truth-Don’t settle for gossip or popular
opinion. Seek information from people who
study the issues.