"The Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration Association is a gift of Divine Providence. I heartily approve the goal of this association. It perfectly reflects the mind of Pope John Paul II in promoting devotion to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart is as simple and as complex, as evident and as elusive, as love. No one who is familiar with the authentic literature on the subject can doubt that devotion to the Sacred Heart is an infinitely rich treasure. Our Lord Himself referred to His Heart, and to the devotion centered on it, as an inexhaustible store of graces and blessings.

The touchstone of sincerity in the spiritual life for all Christians, of whatever age or mental maturity, is to serve God with their whole heart in the person of Christ, and their neighbor as themselves for the love of God. But we do not serve unless we love. Unless our wills are duly trained to respond to the goodness of God, to His great mercy and love for us even to becoming man and remaining with us in the Eucharist, we shall not serve Him, at least not in the measure that His goodness deserves.

The Week of the Sacred Heart is given to children as a small brochure, which they are told to keep and use as their own. Each day, from Sunday through Saturday, has an appropriate set of resolutions, a typical practice or duty, and a special aspiration to the Sacred Heart. Opposite the daily program is a pen sketch of some mystery in the life of Christ that will appeal to children.

In the present meditation we shall concentrate on the narrative which is found in the gospels, for our purpose especially in St. Matthew, with an explanation of the meaning to understand what exactly took place when Christ was tempted. Our next meditation we will be to see the implications, the profound implications for our moral, spiritual, and collective lives of society which, I can honestly say, is being deeply penetrated by the evil spirit.

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.

When we think of the three theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity (Love), we have many conceptions of what they mean and how they interact in our lives, and what is required for living these virtues. The supernatural virtues are those which unite us with God. The effect of these graces is to raise us to a supernatural mode of being through which we can become children of God. The key for us is understanding what these virtues are and how we gain their benefit.

Theology, literally "the science of God," is derived from the Greek Theos (God) and logos (study). The term was used by the Stoics in the third century B.C. to describe a reasoned analysis of the deity. Earlier uses were more naturalistic. Thus Plato in the Republic and Aristotle in his Metaphysics called Homer, Hesiod, and Orpheus theologians because they first determined the genealogies and attributes of the gods. With the advent of Christianity theology came to mean what its etymology suggested, and was defined by St. Augustine as "reasoning or discourse about the divinity."

Our present conference has a thesis. Our thesis may be stated in one declarative sentence. Professed Catholics must become channels of extraordinary grace to the modern world. And they will become channels of grace to others in the measure, I repeat only in the measure, of their own reception of grace through the Holy Eucharist as the sacrament sacrifice of the mass, as the Communion sacrament of Holy Communion and as the presence sacrament of Christ’s Real Presence now on earth in the Holy Eucharist.

"My purpose in this conference will be twofold: first to identify and explain what the Catholic Church understands by the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and then to see how basic to Protestantism is the denial of the Real Presence." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

"When we say through Mary, to Jesus, we mean that: Through Mary’s voluntary consent we have received Jesus. Through Mary’s example we are better able to imitate Jesus. Through Mary’s intercession we obtain graces from Jesus. To better understand what these phrases mean, is to more deeply appreciate what it means to be a Catholic." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

"This is my 31st year in working for the Holy See. And the single most important responsibility which Holy Father and the Vatican have given me is to inspire the laity, the faithful devoted laity to preserve and promote the Catholic Faith. I would like to summarize what I want to say with you in seven letters, L L S W C O and S in order for the laity to both preserve and promote the Catholic faith in the modern secularized world." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

"Our purpose in these lectures is to develop our basic theme, which I call "The Catholic Discovery of America." Our focus will not be on the discovery of America, which is obvious. It will be on the Catholic discovery of America which, I assure you, is not obvious." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

"The subject of our conference is the Catechist as Channel of Grace. First, a long introduction. The last person we would expect to suggest as a model for catechists is the Little Flower, St. Therese of Lisieux. Her short life of 24 years, from 1873 to 1897 was spent with her family until her early teens. The rest of her life was in the cloistered Carmelite convent. Neither is exactly what we understand by catechesis, which means teaching the Faith. Yet, what she wrote in her one book, her autobiography, tells us volumes on what is the principal task of a catechist." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

"Somewhere near the center of the crisis in the Catholic Church today is confusion about the meaning of the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Pope Paul VI recognized this crisis before the close of the Second Vatican Council. He identified the two principal errors about the Real Presence that were already current in his day." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

"The average Catholic is vague concerning the nature of the Eucharistic presence of Christ, and one can sympathize with him, in view of the lack of clear teaching about the Most Blessed Sacrament. The basic objection to the Catholic doctrine of the real presence is not that it is against Scripture, but that it is against reason." - John Young

The Treasury of Catholic Wisdom is a comprehensive anthology of the outstanding Catholic literature from the first century to modern times. Mystics and martyrs, philosophers and theologians, poets and prose writers are quoted at length and in depth. They are truly representative of the spirit and substance of Catholicism in its paradox of phenomenal stability and versatility over the centuries.

Part of The Most Holy Eucharist Series, a group of six brochures by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

"Out of what is becoming a Eucharistic library of the Pope's teaching, I wish to concentrate on what he says in his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis. My plan is to explain what the Holy Father's teaching on the Eucharist in this document means, while drawing on his other writings to fill out the explanation." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

"In a society such as ours that rejects metaphysics, glorifies moral relativism, promotes blatant materialism, and whose academics are busy deconstructing the truth, it should not surprise us that an enormous spiritual void has emerged, which many desperately try to fill with frenetic consumerism, joyless hedonism, or bogus spirituality." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

DETROIT - They came by the thousands to say goodbye, to bid their final, usually tearful, farewell to Fr. John Hardon, the Jesuit priest, theologian, author and, for many, the closest thing they had known to a "living saint." Young and old they came, for the last few months, from all over the United States, from Rome, from too many countries to count. Rich, poor, scholars and professors, as well as some barely educated, marginally employed and unemployed. Most were Catholics, many converts to the Faith. There were countless priests and nuns.

"By now so much has been written and spoken about the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and Pope John Paul’s encyclical Veritatis Splendor, you may wonder if there is anything new to say. Yes, there is. In my judgment this catechism and encyclical mark a turning point in the history of the Catholic Church." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

Our meditation for this evening is on the Two Standards: Christ and Satan. As you know, this meditation is at the beginning of the second week of the Spiritual Exercises. My plan is to cover this in three areas. First, to speak on the devil and the Divine Providence, then to expand specifically on the two standards, and finally, to say something on how we are to cope with the evil spirit in our lives.