Real Presence, The (Alt)

"My purpose will be to defend the following thesis: that the Holy Eucharist is Jesus Christ, who is in the Blessed Sacrament both as Reality and as Presence. He is in the Eucharist as Reality because the Eucharist is Jesus Christ. He is in the Eucharist as Presence because through the Eucharist He affects us and we are in contact with Him - depending on our faith and devotion to the Savior living really in our midst." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

"The Eucharist is a sacrament giving us the real body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus, the Son of God. Although it does not look like the body and blood of Jesus we see on a crucifix, His Real Presence is hidden within the appearance of a small white consecrated host (altar bread). This is a great mystery, something we cannot fully understand." - Lee Ann Schoofs

When Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity became man he assumed our human nature by taking on the flesh of Mary. He became man for four reasons: 1) to save us by reconciling us with God; 2) that we might know God’s love; 3) to be our model of holiness; and 4) that we may be partakers of the divine nature. "He himself declared that the reason of His advent among men was this, that He might bring them the assured fullness of a more than merely human life."

"There is so much confusion in professedly catholic circles about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist that someone had better make things clear. We begin to understand what the real presence means once we realize that the Holy Eucharist began in the womb of Mary the moment she told the angel, "be done to me according to your word," God became man and began to dwell among us. God was in the world He made from the moment of creation He had to be. Otherwise the world He created out of nothing would have lapsed into the nothingness from which it came." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

Real Presence and Perpetual Adoration (Alt)

"Although I have said this before, I wish to emphasize that what I have been doing in these teleconferences, and surely in today's, is carrying out an explicit order of Pope John Paul II. The order is to do everything in my power to restore faith in the Real Presence where it has been lost. Strengthen that faith where it is weak. In the plainest language, Pope John Paul II declares, I repeat, unless faith in the Real Presence is strong, stronger than it is now, I fear for the survival of the Catholic Church in many dioceses in the United States." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

"In speaking about Holiness it is remarkable how we can overlook the obvious. For example it is obvious that we cannot become holy unless we obtain the extraordinary graces needed to reach sanctity. Hearing about holiness; reading about it; even seeing holiness, does not make one holy. We need grace. It is equally obvious that the graces we need must come to us from Christ since as He told us, "Without Me you can do nothing." If that nothing refers even to salvation, it most certainly refers to sanctification." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

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

The greatest means of converting souls is one more Mass, one more Mass during the week, and, with sacrifice, two or three more Masses; if possible, daily Mass, to pay for the eternal salvation of souls so dear to you. That is the great thing - the Chalice filled with the Precious Blood. You will never see souls go astray if you pay the ransom, hearing one more Mass, two, three, four, and, if possible, daily Mass, with sacrifice; then you are apostles, paying the ransom for the Sacred Heart.

There is no substitute for experience, especially the experience of suffering. That is why what the Holy Father, John Paul II, has to say about suffering is so revealing. He understands, from experience, and that is one reason why his words come from the heart and reach the hearts of those who hear them or read what he says. Wherever the Pope goes, and to whatever group he speaks, his message on suffering is always the same: Be patient and endure the cross of Christ, but at the same time seek to find ways of relieving human suffering caused by hatred, injustice and greed.

These are my private thoughts and musings, yet as I re-read them it occurred to me that these certainly are not just my experiences. These words can apply to just about anyone who spends time in the Lord’s presence. So, please enjoy reading and reflecting on these words as I do, and hopefully your heart will be as filled as mine is with the awe and wonder of being here in His presence. -- Andy Cirmo

Credo asked some who have known Fr. John Hardon to tell us about the impact the Jesuit had in their lives. "He was a man of holiness" From Dominic Aquila, Provost Ave Maria College, Ypsilanti This summer when I came to the position of provost here at Ave Maria College, Ave Maria Press had just received the publishing rights to Fr. Hardon's manuscripts. I met with him so that he might speak about his vision for carrying on his work. I had met him only once before, at a conference, but had been following his work for many years and even reviewed his book A Treasury of Catholic Wisdom.

Religious Life: A Prophetic Vision (Book Review)

Diarmuid O’Murchu’s "Religious Life: A Prophetic Vision" is a revolutionary book. …O’Murchu is a social psychologist whose published writings reveal a radical mind. He claims that what Catholics still call the religious life can no longer be contained within the framework of Christianity. Otherwise, in his own words, the vowed life is doomed to stagnation and death. He devotes over two hundred and fifty pages to outline the revolution that must take place in consecrated life in the Catholic Church. My plan in this analysis is to identify the main ideas on which O’Murchu bases his thesis. After each presentation, I will evaluate these ideas from the perspective of authentic Catholic doctrine.

If Jesuit Father John A.Hardon has his way, Catholic children and adults will return to learning the basics of their faith by memorizing catechism questions and answers word for word, as they did until the 1950s, when the Baltimore Catechism was the standard instructional tool.

Christ instituted the sacrament of the priesthood for three reasons, three fundamental reasons. The first reason is so that the Holy Eucharist would be possible. We need the Priesthood in order to have the Holy Eucharist: the Sacrifice sacrament of the Mass; the Communion sacrament of Holy Communion; and the Presence sacrament of Christ’s Real Presence. No priesthood, no Eucharist.

Faith in Our Lord’s resurrection from the dead is also a fact of recorded history. It is part of Catholic catechesis, which I wish to stress during this meditation. In other words, I want to bring out as clearly as I can the importance of explaining the mystery of the Resurrection, so that we in turn can pass on this revealed truth and its implications in the lives of others.

If there is one hidden theme in the New Testament, it is the fact that while Christ certainly wants His followers to imitate Him in carrying His cross and to deny themselves to prove that they are His disciples, at the same time He promises them not only an eventual and eternal glory with Him in heaven, but already on this earth, a deep-souled happiness.

"As we address ourselves to the "Rights and Responsibilities of Parents in Religious Education," you will immediately notice that our focus of attention is on parents. This means that, while recognizing the rights of others, notably the Church, and within the Church, of bishops, priests and religious, we concentrate on the rights of father and mother, hence parents (plural), in the religious rearing of their offspring." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

The complete text of the Rite of Eucharistic Devotion, with prayers and responses.

"If there was one fact of our Christian faith which needs to be stressed today it is the need for a father in the family. At the center of the social revolution today is the attack on men, as husbands and fathers of families. Behind this revolution is the philosophy of Karl Marx. According to Marx, families are the invention of dictating males who created, what we call the family, in order to dominate women in human society." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

"Our title for this conference is unusual. We are not speaking of the family in the third millennium. That would be prophetic because only God knows the future. We are speaking of the family for the third millennium. What do we mean? We mean that family life in the closing decade of the second millennium must be stronger, more solid, more secure than ever before since the dawn of Christianity. Why? Because family life in the Western world is faced with challenges which threaten its very survival." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

"Until recent years, we would hardly have written on a subject like "The Roman Primacy and the Spiritual Life." But much has happened to call for some inquiry into the relationship between faith in the papal primacy and growth in the spiritual life. We now know, more clearly than ever before, that not only progress in the spiritual life depends on people's faith in the supreme authority of the Bishop of Rome. The very survival of Christian spirituality is at stake." - Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

There are so many wonderful things we can say about the Rosary that I thought we should focus on what I sincerely believe. The Rosary is necessary in order to obtain from God the miraculous graces that the world so desperately needs in our day. The moment we say the modern world needs miraculous graces we imply that these graces are indeed to be obtained from God; but they must come through the intercession of the Mother of God.