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The conscious adoration of God
Prayer and the First Commandment by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. The most generic and fundamental definition of prayer: the conscious adoration of God. We might say it is expressed adoration. Adoration manifest. It is the communication of our minds and wills with God with...
Islam: These thoughts are not the passing fancy of a social visionary
Islam by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. To most Christians, Mohammedanism is only a vague religious movement that somehow gave rise to the Crusades and that presently affects the culture and political aspirations of certain people in North Africa, the Near East and...
Orthodoxy without Charity is Not Christianity
Love Your Enemies A homily by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Jesus said to his disciples, “You have heard the commandment: You shall love your countryman but hate your enemy. My command to you is: love your enemies; pray...
Augustine had the enemies of Christian marriage in his day, and we have them in ours
Saint Augustine and Christian Marriage by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. It must seem strange, or even a bit archaic, to address oneself to a topic like "Saint Augustine and Christian Marriage." What makes it odd is that Augustine died in 430 A.D. and this is the last...
Though we don’t die a martyr’s death, we are expected to live a martyr’s life
by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. Our reflections for this afternoon are on the North American Martyrs. That's the Church's official name, either the Martyrs of North America or the North American Martyrs and they were all members of the Society of Jesus. There were eight...
St. Ignatius of Antioch: The Church founded by Christ is the Catholic Church
by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. We Catholics in the Western world are the most educated people in two millenia of Christianity. Our minds have become filled with knowledge about everything from atomic energy to zoology. Our intellects have been sharpened to a razor’s...
John Paul II: Christless modern man is fearful and worried
On Pope John Paul II’s Tenth Anniversary A Meditation by Father John Hardon, S.J. The Holy Father Pope John Paul II celebrated the tenth anniversary of his pontificate last month. To mark the occasion, Father John Hardon has set down these reflections on what this...
There is no stability in marriage outside of Catholic Christianity
by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. There are two names by which the Church refers to this sacrament – either marriage or matrimony. Most popularly when we refer to this sacrament it is "matrimony," although "marriage" is an appropriate name. I think the best place to begin...
Without Peter there is no certainty, no security, and no unity in Christianity
by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. There are certain events in the Gospels that synthesize what a Catholic is supposed to be. These events are at once both mysteries and challenges. They are mysteries because, though revealed, we cannot fully understand them. That, by the...
Vincent de Paul: He had early become the confidant of the royalty
by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. First, looking at your chart, you wonder what else is there to write about Vincent de Paul. His principle biographer is Coste Leonard – Coste, and then in the English translation, Leonard – in thirteen volumes, of the correspondence, the...