Christian Spirituality

Father Hardon’s writings on Christian spirituality guide readers in deepening their relationship with God through prayer, virtue, and the life of grace. These articles explore holiness, spiritual growth, the interior life, and the Catholic path to union with Christ.

All My Liberty – Chapter 7: The Retreat Election

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Although the Election is not a special meditation, it is by all odds the most important single exercise of an Ignatian retreat. Whatever precedes, should prepare the exercitant to choose according to the highest motives; what follows will confirm the object of his choice. Some idea may be gained […]

All My Liberty – Chapter 8: Contemplation for Obtaining Love

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. The Contemplation for Obtaining Love is the masterpiece of the Spiritual Exercises. It offers an insight into Christian perfection at once so simple and yet profound as to escape the average retreatant unless he makes an effort to understand its theological implications. Much as the Principle and Foundation anticipates […]

All My Liberty – Part Two – Ignatian Ideals and Methodology – Chapter 9: On Examining One’s Conscience

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. A cursory reading of what St. Ignatius says about examination of conscience reveals a number of simple facts. He recommends two kinds of examen, a general and particular. Where the general examen covers all our defects, the particular concentrates on one fault or sin for a definite length of […]

All My Liberty – Chapter 10: Vocal and Mental Prayer

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. It would be a mistake to suppose that the theory and practice of prayer found in the Spiritual Exercises refer only to the time of retreat. They have universal application and contain the refined wisdom of one of the Church’s greatest mystics on the subject of the soul’s communication […]

All My Liberty – Chapter 11: Mysteries of the Life of Christ

Chapter 11: Mysteries of the Life of Christ By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. The solid core of the Spiritual Exercises, around which everything else revolves, is the set of fifty mysteries of the life of Christ normally placed after the key meditations and consequently liable to be taken as an after-thought instead of something […]

All My Liberty – Chapter 12: Discernment of Spirits

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. The Rules for the Discernment of Spirits reveal St. Ignatius as a diagnostician of the spiritual life, whose principles of analysis were born of the interior struggle he experienced at Loyola, which ended in his conversion and began his dedication to the service of God. They were further refined, […]

All My Liberty – Chapter 13: Norms of Catholic Orthodoxy

Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. A superficial reading of the Rules for Thinking with the Church may leave us with the impression that they are only a set of commonplace norms for living a Catholic life or a kind of dispensable addition to the Exercises. In reality they are a classic summation of the Ignatian […]

All My Liberty – Appendix I: Selections from the Text of the Exercises

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. First Principle and Foundation Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. The other things on the face of the earth are created for man to help him in attaining the end for which he is created. Hence, […]

All My Liberty – Appendix II: Apostolic Constitution of Pius XI Declaring St. Ignatius Patron of All Spiritual Exercises

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. It has always been the chief concern of the Sovereign Pontiffs to commend, and highly to praise, to promote, and strongly to encourage, all that notably makes for the goodness and perfection of Christian life. Now a place in the front rank of all that helps towards this end […]

We Are Immortal

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. The subject of our present talk is We Are Immortal. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of reflecting, even for a few minutes, on the facts that time was when we did not exist, but having come into being we shall never cease to exist. We began in […]

Solitude

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. I believe it is more than coincidental that in the revised liturgy for the second of January we celebrate the combined feasts of St. Basil and Gregory Nazianen. They are two oriental saints both of whom died before the end of the fourth century. They were close friends. Both […]

Writing and the Spiritual Life

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Few people realize the value of writing. It was St. Augustine who confessed, as he said, that he was “one of those who write because they have made some progress and who, by means of writing, make further progress” in the spiritual life (Letter 143). The proverbs of all […]

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