AR#6 – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating, Ph.D.
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.
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., is a professor of Spiritual Theology and serves as a spiritual director at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO.
AR#5 – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating, Ph.D.
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 someday 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.
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., is a professor of Spiritual Theology and serves as a spiritual director at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO.
AR#4 – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating, Ph.D.
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.
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., is a professor of Spiritual Theology and serves as a spiritual director at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO.
AR#3 – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating, Ph.D.
As human beings, we have disordered desires. One of our greatest disordered desires is to want things now, to be impatient, and to want things through our own efforts, without waiting or cooperating 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, and 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.
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., is a professor of Spiritual Theology and serves as a spiritual director at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO.
AR#2 – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating, Ph.D.
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.
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., is a professor of Spiritual Theology and serves as a spiritual director at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO.
AR#1 – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating, Ph.D.
One of God’s attributes is patience. He suffers His own creation, as it comes to fulfillment in His love. The God that we worship is a God who truly loves us. And in this great love, He waits. He waits for us to respond to all that He has given us. And He doesn’t simply wait in a passive way. He keeps loving us, keeps directing His love toward our hearts to awaken them with a response. This is near the very core of what Advent is about. God-loving us so deeply, directing His love toward us, and Him sharing His life with us so that we might respond in kind. So that we might wait and receive, and then respond to His great love
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., is a professor of Spiritual Theology and serves as a spiritual director at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO.
The Liturgy of the Eucharist, Part 1 – The Way of Mystery with Deacon James Keating
Deacon James Keating explores how the Eucharist shapes moral life by transforming our conscience through divine charity. He explains that the Eucharist is the source of goodness because it is the wellspring of God’s love. By placing ourselves before this mystery, we are drawn into holiness and made capable of authentic charity. The offertory is not merely a financial gesture but a response to being filled with the Word of God—an act that symbolizes giving of self. The mingling of water and wine is a sign of our union with Christ’s divinity through humility and service, reminding us that true communion with Christ sends us toward those in need. The priest’s quiet prayer for purification before consecration reveals a deep awareness of human unworthiness and the immense grace of God’s invitation to holiness.
The shift in the Mass from prayers directed to Christ to those offered with Christ to the Father mirrors Jesus’ self-offering on the Cross and our participation in His obedience. He also reflects on the priest’s vocation as a sacramental presence of Christ—the bridge between God and His people. The priest’s role is not managerial but paternal, called to spiritual fatherhood that demands holiness, humility, and courage to teach truth even when unpopular. We shouldn’t reduce priesthood to leadership models devoid of spiritual depth: the priest must feed his people with truth rather than cultural opinions. The faithful, in turn, are called to pray fervently for their priests, that they may live their vocation with integrity and draw their communities into deeper communion with Christ.
Discerning Hearts Reflection Questions
How does recognizing the Eucharist as the “wellspring of divine charity” reshape your understanding of moral goodness?
In what ways can you make your offertory—both spiritual and material—a more authentic act of self-giving?
What does the mingling of water and wine at Mass teach you about humility and participation in Christ’s divinity?
How do you discern whether an encounter with God has truly moved you toward serving the poor and those in need?
When you witness the priest’s hand-washing ritual, how might you join interiorly in his prayer for purification?
What does the shift in prayer “through Christ to the Father” invite you to consider about obedience and dependence on God?
How can you support your parish priest in living out his vocation as a spiritual father rather than a mere leader or administrator?
What does Deacon Keating’s reflection reveal about your own attitude toward authority and obedience in the Church?
How might you respond when the truth of Church teaching challenges your comfort or cultural assumptions?
In what concrete ways can you pray for priests and help strengthen their courage to proclaim the Gospel faithfully?
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., is a professor of Spiritual Theology and serves as a spiritual director at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO.
The Paschal Mystery – The Way of Mystery with Deacon James Keating
Deacon James Keating and Kris McGregor explore how the Paschal Mystery and the Eucharistic liturgy are inseparably united. The Mass is not merely about attendance or obligation but about making oneself available to be taken into Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. True participation requires an interior openness—allowing Christ to shape our hearts and draw us into communion with both Him and others. Rather than reducing Mass to duty, fellowship, or a fleeting emotional experience, he invites listeners to see it as an intentional, interior response to the presence of God breaking into time.
Conversion is a gradual process. Everyone comes to the Eucharist at different stages of their spiritual journey, carrying joy, grief, or indifference. We need to bring our authentic state—whether delight or sorrow—before God, trusting that Christ works within those realities. Mass is both personal and communal: it reverences each individual’s encounter with Christ while drawing the community together in communion. Our identity flows from the Eucharist, where Christ gives us Himself and plants the seed of resurrection within us—a gift that sustains us through life, death, and into eternity.
Discerning Hearts Reflection Questions
How do I prepare my heart to be truly available to Christ when I go to Mass?
In what ways do I sometimes reduce the Eucharist to an obligation rather than an encounter with Christ?
Am I attentive to my interior disposition at Mass, or do I approach it on autopilot?
How open am I to letting Christ take me into His life, death, and resurrection during the liturgy?
Do I bring both my joys and sorrows honestly before God in the Eucharist?
How do I recognize and respect that others in the community may be at different points in their spiritual journey?
In what ways do I allow my emotions—or lack of them—to determine my participation at Mass?
Do I see the Mass as both a personal encounter with Christ and a communal act of worship?
How do I live out my Eucharistic identity in daily life beyond the church walls?
What steps can I take to deepen my intentional presence at the Eucharistic liturgy each week?
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., is a professor of Spiritual Theology and serves as a spiritual director at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO.
The Centrality of the Eucharist – The Way of Mystery with Deacon James Keating
Deacon James Keating reflect on the Paschal mystery as the triumph of Christ over death and evil, not only as a past event but as a living reality. Fear of death shapes human behavior in profound ways, yet Christ’s resurrection liberates us from that fear, planting within us the “seed of the resurrection.” When we allow Christ’s life to take root in our hearts, hope becomes part of our identity, enabling us to see death as a passage into fulfillment rather than an end. This truth is made present in the Eucharist, where we receive Christ’s own obedience and love for the Father, equipping us to confront struggles, temptation, and cultural passivity with courage and vitality.
Tthe Eucharist is participation in Christ’s self-offering. By entering Mass with honesty—acknowledging our sins and weaknesses rather than hiding behind appearances—we open ourselves to transformation and strength for daily battles against sin and despair. True worship draws us into communion with God, pouring out in acts of charity toward others. Keating warns against reducing Jesus to a distant historical figure or treating Mass as a mere ritual; instead, it’s an encounter with the living Christ whose presence empowers us for holiness. The Paschal mystery calls us into a life of honesty, sacrifice, and reciprocal love, where God’s gift of himself to us moves us to give ourselves away for others.
Discerning Hearts Reflection Questions
How does Christ’s victory over death change the way I view my own mortality?
In what ways do I allow fear—of death, failure, or loss—to diminish the fullness of life God desires for me?
Do I see the Eucharist as a living encounter with Christ, or do I reduce it to a routine ritual?
How honestly do I bring my sins and weaknesses before God when I participate in Mass?
What prevents me from fully cooperating with God’s grace to become “fit for heaven”?
How am I called to carry my cross daily in imitation of Christ’s obedience to the Father?
Do I approach Mass with the desire to be transformed, or with rationalizations that hold me back?
How can I allow God’s gift of himself in the Eucharist to bear fruit in acts of charity toward others?
Where in my life am I tempted to seek fulfillment in “stuff” rather than in communion with the divine?
How is the Holy Spirit inviting me to pour myself out in trust and love, as God pours himself out for me?
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., is a professor of Spiritual Theology and serves as a spiritual director at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO.
The Eucharist and Moral Living – The Way of Mystery with Deacon James Keating
Deacon James Keating and Kris McGregor explores how the Eucharist is central to the Christian life, shaping both conscience and spiritual formation. Dcn. Keating describes the Mass as the intimate meeting place where minds are renewed, hearts are healed, and access to God’s own life is offered as close as one’s parish church. He likens growth in appreciating the Eucharist to marriage—initial understanding is limited, but with time, deeper dimensions of love and commitment unfold. As spiritual maturity develops, the Mass becomes not an obligation but a deep desire, with daily participation seen as a joy rather than a burden. The Eucharist can be viewed as the unfolding of “the way of mystery,” a lifelong, step-by-step journey into God’s redemptive love, where sacraments are encounters with Christ acting in the heart.
The Paschal Mystery is God’s astonishing generosity in sharing His own happiness with humanity through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. Redemption is God’s healing of humanity’s wound of distrust, restoring friendship and communion with Him through the sacramental life. This union is not achieved all at once but unfolds gradually, with human cooperation in grace being the drama of life. Keating highlights the Trinity’s eternal communion of love and God’s profound desire to dwell with humanity, even calling us friends through Christ. The Eucharist reveals both God’s lordship and His intimate friendship, grounding discipleship in gratitude, trust, and awe before the mystery of divine love made present in bread and wine.
Discerning Hearts Reflection Questions
In what ways has my understanding of the Mass grown or matured over time, like a marriage deepening in love?
Do I approach the Eucharist as a precious gift, or do I sometimes take its accessibility for granted?
How am I being called to prepare more intentionally before receiving the Eucharist?
What does meditating on the Paschal Mystery reveal to me about the purpose of my life?
Where in my life do I still struggle to trust God’s providence, and how might the sacraments heal this wound?
How do I respond to God’s desire for communion with me in my daily choices?
In what ways does Christ’s invitation to friendship change the way I live my discipleship?
How do I experience the drama of redemption—continuing to surrender to grace—in my own spiritual journey?
What practical step can I take this week to cherish the Eucharist more deeply?
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., is a professor of Spiritual Theology and serves as a spiritual director at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO.
