Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts » Deacon James Keating

Episode 1 -Crossing the Desert: Lent and Conversion – "The Desert of Consumerism".  Lent wants to remind us of our real identity. At first appearance a seeming “obligation,” Lent is actually a great gift. Are we brave enough to enter this desert, and then let it affect us so deeply as to turn us away from sin and false identities, turn us toward communion with the living God? The Church presents this season to us every year because it is hoped that this year will be our year to say “Yes” to Lent’s call to repentance. Lent should not be something we go through alone, but together. As the Hebrews wandered the desert for forty years, so we should enter Lent through the ecclesial community and share its challenges with brothers and sisters in Christ. Lent should not be what the elderly man in the barbershop characterized as “life as usual.” With our goal being moral conversion, let us now turn to see how God can facilitate that conversion when we take on a “lenten mind.” The post CTD#1 – “The Desert of C

The Suffering of Love – The Heart of Hope w/ Deacon James Keating Ph.D. – Discerning Hearts podcast Deacon James Keating and Kris McGregor discuss the healing hand of Christ, seeing the will of God, and how we suffer love.  Deacon Keating reflects on the tale of the two criminals on the cross next to Christ on Golgotha. The post HH4 – The Suffering of Love – The Heart of Hope w/ Deacon James Keating Ph.D. – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

What is the authentic understanding of "conversion" in the context of prayer. Deacon Keating discusses the reflection offered by the Holy Father of the encounter of Elijah with prophets of Baal. The post SOP6 – Conversion in the Context of Prayer – The School of Prayer: Reflections on the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI w/ Deacon James Keating appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

What is the authentic understanding of "intercession" in the context of prayer. Moses speaks to God as friend. The invisibility of God puts deep questions in our hearts. Unless we have the intimacy of relationship with God in our hearts, our fear will overwhelm our faith. We also lose patience when waiting for God. "Waiting" is a dangerous period for human beings; it is literally suffering for us. The virtue of patience is the remedy. "Waiting" causes us to run to other diversions...it happens in worship. "Where are you" "Are you real?" "Can I believe what is in the Word?" "Please help me." If we go deep into our hearts, the content of our waiting becomes the occasion for our intimacy. But if we just feel the pain of waiting, we will go looking for lost gods. It comes down to trust. The role of our memory is so important. The post SOP5 – Waiting for God – The School of Prayer: Reflections on the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI w/ Deacon James Keating appeared first on Discerning Hearts Cath

Jacob wrestling with Angel. The mystery of the name. We have to let God ask us who we are or will you resist and remain isolated? Our prayer is only going to be fruitful if we surrender ourselves to the question...who are you? Like Jacob, once we give over our name then God can begin to transfigure that name, or in other words, our persons to be more inline with His will, His love, His power. Eventually, in prayer, we have to enter into the struggle...what is really going on in our souls, in our hearts and are our wrestling with God's love. We yield our identity to God's love. The wounding of Jacob by the Angel. It is the symbol of the wound, the opening of the self, which symbolizes an entryway to vulnerability...God is deeply affecting us. God's love, concern, and fascination with us is how He enters into our being and "wounds" us. If we could "be still" and allow Him to love us, He becomes victorious within us. The name we yield to God is our heart...the core of our being. At Baptism, we giv

Episode 3- The School of Prayer: Reflections on the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI – Abraham the great Patriarch who prays in intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah. The mystery of intercessory prayer and God's great mercy. When we persist in prayer, like Abraham, the more we come to know God and trust in His love for us. How sin corrupts our capacity to receive God's movement of protection and love. How the sacrifice of Christ opens the door to the mystery. If we can learn how to pray, then we learn how to be loved. How do we pray for others? The post SOP3 – The Mystery of Intercessory Prayer and God’s Great Mercy – The School of Prayer: Reflections on the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI w/ Deacon James Keating appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

The School of Prayer: Reflections on the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI – Faith and reason in the life of prayer. Allowing God to effect our minds, as well as our hearts. If you let God close you will be free...to let him in so close that God prays in you. Letting God's love be the norm of our culture...in the other and in the poor. The role of silence in prayer and posture of kneeling. The post SOP2 – Faith and Reason in the Life of Prayer – The School of Prayer: Reflections on the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI w/ Deacon James Keating appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

“Life without prayer has no meaning or points of reference". The relationship between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is so essential to our understanding of prayer. The meaning of the Church. Suffering the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the face of God. Do not be afraid, He will teach you happiness. The post SOP1 – Why We Need Prayer – The School of Prayer: Reflections on the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI w/ Deacon James Keating appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

St. Therese of Lisieux said the following: “If I did not simply live from one moment to another, it would be impossible for me to be patient. But I only look at the present. I forget the past, and I take good care not to forestall the future.” In these remarks, St. Therese is trying ... Read more The post AR#12 – St. Therese and the Present Moment – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating Ph.D. appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

The patient one is also the meek one. In meekness, we have received God’s love so deeply, that we securely possess our own identities. Meekness is not weakness or some type of emotional withdrawal. To be meek, is to have suffered the coming of God’s love so deeply in our hearts, that we finally know ... Read more The post AR#11- The Grace to Meek – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating Ph.D. appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

In the area of the new evangelization, we need to receive more in prayer. Even more than give witness to an action or word. The deeper we receive his love in prayer, the fewer our words will have to be to have great effect. God’s harvest awaits those who have received His love deeply. And ... Read more The post AR#10 – Receiving Love Deeply – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating Ph.D. appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

 The impatient one, above all, desires to speed up time and to get what he wants, when he wants it. In this way, impatience is related to violence. Whereas patience takes suffering upon the self. The impatient one makes others suffer. The patient one suffers for the sake of others. This Advent, the one ... Read more The post AR#9 – The True Way of Love – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating Ph.D. appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

The art of waiting is really the cultivation of the virtue of love. I will wait, and wait, and wait with the Lord. I will wait with and in the Lord, rather than violate charity. Wanting to speed up time, and make things happen now is a violation of charity. It does violence to the nature of things. But the patient person keeps a perspective that is beyond expedient. Beyond what is immediate, and sees before him or her, all what serves love. This Advent, let’s ask for the grace to serve only what promotes love. The post AR#8 – The Art of Waiting – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating Ph.D. appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Since we are God’s creation, we have come from God and we are returning to God; God has great confidence in His own grace. He has great confidence that his love for us can change us. He knows that we can make progress and be restored to spiritual and moral health. Do you have confidence in God? Do you trust God? Always desiring to restore you, once again, to happiness and interior peace. Advent is a time to be restored. Primarily, the church is asking us to be restored through the sacramental life. Advent is a time to come back to Church; come back to the Mass; come back to the celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation, where God is confidently waiting for you, knowing that you can make progress and be restored to spiritual health. And to taste, once again, His happiness that He shares with you. The post AR#7 – Confidence in God – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating Ph.D. – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

One of our greatest sufferings as Christians, is our own impatience with ourselves. We want to be good and holy immediately. St. Francis de Sales said “Have patience with all things. But chiefly, have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage, in considering your own imperfections. But instantly set about to remedy them. Begin every day a task anew." During Advent, lets make our new task a deeper prayer life, entrusting all our desires for goodness and holiness, to the Most Holy Trinity, who has infinite patience with us. And as we receive this amazing love from the Trinity, let us ask that our own characters be reformed, so that we might have real patience with one another. The post AR#6 – Do Not Lose Courage – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating Ph.D. – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

As human beings, we tend to sin. We all know this about our characters. And many times, it moves us to despair. God sees our sin, but He never loses his patience with us. And one of the reasons why God never loses His patience with His creation, is, of course, because He loves us. But also because His happiness is already fully possessed by Himself. He’s not like us when we get angry at our children, and try to move time forward; try to make things happen quickly. God is perfectly happy in Himself, and so He does no violence to time, or to people’s development. He waits. He calls. He shares His own happiness with us. And He knows in this patience that He fully possesses, that some day we will be attracted to such a powerful person, to such a peaceful person as he revealed Himself to be in Jesus. This Advent, don’t lose patience with yourself. Convert all desires to sin into Jesus’ own heart. Give it to him and He will give you a share in His own happiness. The post AR#5 – God’s Patience – A

Human beings are called by God, to find their fulfillment patiently, to a life of cultivating virtue. We don’t become saints immediately, we don’t even grow in disdain of our sins immediately. For we are so attached to them, and the immediacy of pleasure that they give us, that it takes time for us to disconnect from that pleasure, and to cultivate a new love, for the only pleasure that lasts, God sharing His own happiness with us. This Advent, lets ask the Lord to open our hearts more deeply so that we can receive this happiness from Him. And in so receiving it, be healed of our impatience. For what is being given, and what is coming to us, is more than we could ever imagine. The post AR#4 – The Only Pleasure That Lasts – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating Ph.D. – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

As human beings, we have disordered desires. One of our greatest disordered desires, is to want things now, to be impatient, to want things through our own efforts, without waiting or co-operating with God’s will. To wait and cooperate with God’s will, is to unleash the wonderful character trait of trust. To entrust all of our desires, and all that we wish would be fulfilled into the person of Jesus Christ, whose only desire is our goodness, our happiness, our holiness. This Advent, let’s trust that God is thinking about us all the time, and moving creation in such a way that all that is good will be given to us. Let us ask him to heal our desire to want things now. And to renew within us the desire to want only holiness, to want only what God wants for us, for he knows what is best. The post AR#3 – Healing Disorderd Desires – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating Ph.D. – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

We want everything accomplished right away. God only knows that accomplishment follows one thing after another. He knows that it takes time for us to learn what it means to be human, to be those who are loved so deeply by His most Sacred Heart, His mother, and the saints. He knows that it takes time for us to understand that His love, and the reception of His love, is the very origin of our joy. During Advent, we ask even with more fervor, to receive this love. And we ask for the grace to release this joy, especially through the intercession of the saints and the Blessed Mother. The post AR#2 – To Be Loved and To Receive Joy – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating Ph.D. – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

This reflection was given during a special Discerning Hearts Advent evening of prayer and meditation service at St. Margaret Mary's Church, in Omaha, NE The post The Gift of Holiness – Advent Retreat Reflection by Deacon James Keating Ph.D. appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.