Virtues

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. This is our closing conference. I mean it when I say it pains me to have to leave. But, I promise from today on, first time I made this promise, I will remember the Handmaids of the Precious Blood by name every morning after rising and the last thing […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. The best description of mortification was given by Our Lord. He said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mat 16:24). Mortification, therefore, is self-denial. And self-denial is doing the will of God, even […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. St. Ignatius’ Letter on Obedience which he wrote to the Jesuits in Portugal on March 26, 1553, is justly regarded as “the most admirable of all the letters which came from his pen.” [1] In the four centuries since its composition, the letter has been translated into all the […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. I am afraid that for many Catholics the term “spiritual reading” is either a strange expression, and they are not sure what it means, or they have heard that monks and nuns do it–whatever it is. But spiritual reading is neither strange nor exotic as by now centuries of […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. On several dramatic occasions Christ had children brought to Him that He might bless them, embrace them and identify them as models for His followers to imitate. Clearly when Christ identified children as the patterns that we are somehow to pattern our lives on if we are going to […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. First, what do we mean by the Real Presence? By the Real Presence we mean the Presence now on earth until the end of time of Jesus Christ. True God and True Man in the fu11ness of both natures contained by the Eucharistic species. He as it were dwells, […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. I suggest that we reflect on the virtue of confidence. I doubt if there is any single disposition of soul that we need especially in our day more than confidence. The reason is not far to seek. See there is so much to discourage even the most hardy souls, […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. The practice of penance is simply living out the virtue. Where the virtue is the divinely endowed power, the practice is our exercising this power. Of course, we still need grace to practice penance, but nobody is going to do it for us. We must practice. God gave us […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. This will not be an ordinary conference. Our purpose here is to show that Christ continues performing miracles now on earth, no less than He did during His public ministry in Palestine. All the miracles that Jesus performed during His visible stay on earth were done by His divine […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. The theme of this issue of The Catholic Faith is on the theological virtues. They are the good habits of mind and will, supernaturally infused into the soul. Their immediate object is God. They are faith, hope, and charity. At baptism, we receive the uncreated grace of the indwelling […]