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Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Archives
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Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Archives |
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| Prayer and the First Commandment In the present meditation we plan to again ask ourselves the three basic questions: what, why, and how. What are the principle forms of prayer? Why must we pray? And then, this being a retreat, how can we improve our practice of prayer? First then the main forms or kinds of prayer. The Church’s tradition distinguishes not just four but five principle forms of prayer. The adoration of submission, the prayer of adoration of love, the prayer of thanksgiving, the prayer of petition and the prayer of expiation. |
| Our Love of Others It is Christ himself who used the expression "new commandment". When as you know, He gave His long discourse at the Last Supper. So important is this term "new commandment" that on it’s proper understanding depends I think in large measure a true appreciation of the New Testament. |
| The Ten Commandments and Christian Sanctity What is strange about the title is the combination of “Ten Commandments” and “Christian Sanctity.” The Ten Commandments or Decalogue were given to Moses in the Old Testament. Whereas Christian sanctity, by definition, is the holiness which Christ offered to His followers in the New Testament. Moreover, the Ten Commandments are the absolute minimum that God expects of human beings as a condition for reaching their eternal destiny. Whereas Christian sanctity, if we may coin a phrase, represents the maximum that human beings, with the help of God’s grace, can give in their loving dedication to God and their total self-surrender to His divine will. |
| Commandments of God - Detraction and Calumny The immediate focus of the Eighth Commandment is falsehood that does injury to one's neighbor. Harm to another person's reputation, therefore, is the special prohibition of this divine mandate. A person's reputation may be injured in various ways, notably by detraction and calumny or slander. Detraction is the unjust violation of the good reputation of another by revealing something true about him. Calumny or slander differs from detraction in that what is said or imputed about a person is not true. |
| Adoration of God: The First Commandment Our present meditation is on the first Commandment of the Decalogue and specifically on adoration of God. As we begin our reflections on the Decalogue we should first point out that the Decalogue is immense, it embraces, literally all the religious and moral responsibilities of the human race. Remember too that our focus is on the Ten Commandments and Sanctity. Consequently, we shall necessarily have to be selective not so much in what we meditate on but rather, in how much, how much attention we give in what is not just an ocean, but a universe of revealed truth. |
| Breaking the Sixth Commandment Leads to Murder There are some topics that are catchy when you first hear them, but they lose their impact by their very startling presentation. Whoever heard of the sixth commandment as so binding that if you break it, it leads to murder? But that is precisely what I am saying. |
| Christ’s Teaching on the Sixth and Ninth Commandments We may say the Catholic Church has remained the one true church with God’s grace because She has remained firm in preserving the teaching of Christ on chastity. Basically, we will look at two aspects of this gigantic subject. First, briefly, what was the Old Testament understanding of the sixth and ninth commandments of the Decalogue? And then, what was Christ’s teaching on these commandments? |
| The Eighth Commandment and Lying The eighth commandment of the Decalogue in the Old Testament is worded almost identically in Exodus and Deuteronomy, in both of which books we have the text of the Decalogue. It says: "You shall not be a false witness against your neighbor." |
| The Fifth Commandment and Anger As narrated by Saint Matthew in Christ's several chapter discourse in the Sermon On the Mount, our plan is to look at this very simple but complex subject of our faith under five perspectives. First, just to hear the words of our Lord, then briefly to explain or comment, if you wish, on the meaning of what our Lord was saying when He gave us His version of the fifth commandment. Third, we will ask ourselves and explain in the Church’s language what is anger. Fourth, what are the recognized effects of anger and finally how are we to cope with our irascible tendencies. In a word, how are we to not merely master but actually profit from the sinful tendency that we all have to anger. |
| The Fifth Commandment and Envy Our present meditation therefore, will be on envy, where the word itself comes from the Latin, envidia, for which we have the English equivalent "envidious", or more commonly, envious. We ask ourselves the following four questions: What is Christ’s teaching on envy? What is envy? What are some of the consequences of envy? And this being a retreat; what are the remedies for the vice? And it is a vice, the vice of envy. |
| The Fifth Commandment and Charity Our focus in reflecting on charity will be to see how our Lord elevated the Old Testament precept. There was a precept of charity already in the Old Law. In sequence, we will look briefly at the Old Testament precept of charity and then the four ways in which our Lord elevated the (what we now so casually call) Christian charity: by elevating the norm, elevating the means, elevating the scope and elevating the purpose of charity. |
| The Fifth Commandment – Sanctity of Human Life The present meditation is on the fifth commandment, the first of seven meditations. The present is on the sanctity of human life. Never in the history of the world has there been more need to believe in the fifth commandment of God than today. The simple imperative, "Thou shall not kill" was already broken at the dawn of human history. Cain murdered his brother Abel out of envy. So the story of the human race goes on. |
| The Fourth Commandment Since the dawn of Christianity however, the Church has consistently interpreted the fourth commandment as prescribing obedience to all legitimate authority. Summarily, especially to three forms of authority: obedience of children to their parents in domestic society, the obedience of citizens to civil authority, and the obedience of the faithful to the authority of the Church in ecclesiastical society. |
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