Commandments

Father Hardon’s writings on the Commandments explore God’s moral law as the foundation of faithful Christian living. These articles examine the Ten Commandments, virtue, sin, conscience, and the call to love God and neighbor through obedience and grace.

Prayer and the First Commandment

By Father 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 whom we adore. Prayer is conversation with our adorable God. And my favorite definition, prayer […]

Our Love of Others

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. The subject of our present reflection and will come in two parts, is on 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 […]

The Ten Commandments and Christian Sanctity

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. INTRODUCTION This must be the most unusual title for a retreat you have ever made: “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. […]

Commandments of God – Detraction and Calumny

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. 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 […]

Adoration of God: The First Commandment

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. 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 […]

Breaking the Sixth Commandment Leads to Murder

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. 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. Our […]

Christ’s Teaching on the Sixth and Ninth Commandments

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Our present meditation is the first of a number on the Sixth and Ninth Commandments of the Decalogue. And specifically, the present meditation is on the teaching of Christ on the Sixth and Ninth Commandments. Over the centuries, there has been no aspect of Christianity that has been more […]

The Eighth Commandment and Lying

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Our present meditation, as we come to the close of the Decalogue, is on the eighth commandment – and specifically on 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 […]

The Fifth Commandment and Anger

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Our present meditation is on anger. In the last meditation we reflected on the sanctity of human life. Remember we are reflecting on the fifth commandment of the Decalogue. We saw that to take the life of a human being, whether our own or the life of another person, […]

The Fifth Commandment and Envy

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. (Transcription) Our present meditation will be on envy. Remember we are reflecting on the fifth commandment of the Decalogue, which in the text of the Old Testament simply says, “You shall not kill.” We saw in our last meditation that Christ elevated the Old Testament understanding of this precept […]

The Fifth Commandment and Charity

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. (Transcription) 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 […]

The Fifth Commandment – Sanctity of Human Life

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. (Transcription) 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 […]

1 2