‘Who can divine the will of the Lord?’ (Wisdom 9.13). My dad can divine water. He holds two rods in his hands in such a way that when he comes near water hidden beeath the ground the rods will cross. A sensitive conscience works like that. It divines the will of God in a particular situation. We may not always like what it tells us. Indeed we may wince at what it whispers. But like a magnet it points us to the truth, no matter how it much it may hurt at the time. We speak about the sting of conscience or having been pricked by our consciences don’t we? That’s a healthy sign. It means we can still divine the will of the Lord, even though at times we find it hard to bear and even harder to obey. Cardinal Newman described conscience as an inner light or compass. For him it was not a matter of private judgement. It was 'much more than a man himself'; it was 'the voice of God', 'the aboriginal Vicar of Christ.'