The Way of Mystery Archives

WOM3 – The Paschal Mystery – The Way of Mystery with Deacon James Keating – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:54 — 19.9MB) | Embed

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.

Check out Deacon Keating’s “Discerning Heart” page

WOM2 – The Centrality of the Eucharist – The Way of Mystery with Deacon James Keating – Discerning Hearts Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:16 — 22.2MB) | Embed

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.

Check out Deacon Keating’s “Discerning Heart” page

WOM18 – The Gift of Grace – The Way of Mystery with Deacon James Keating – Discerning Hearts

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:45 — 22.5MB) | Embed

Episode 18 -The Way of Mystery: The Eucharist and Moral Living– The final installment of the series. The challenge of living the moral life and the gift of grace from the sacrament of the Eucharist.

Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha.

The Vatican II documents remind us that the spiritual journey is not made in a vacuum, that God has chosen to save us, not individually, but as The People of God. The Eucharist must help Christians to make their choices by discerning out of Christ’s paschal mystery. For this process to take place, however, Christians must first understand how the Eucharist puts them in touch with Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection, and what concrete implications being in touch with this mystery has for their daily lives.

Check out more episodes at “The Way of Mystery” Discerning Hearts podcast page

WOM17 – Mystical Experience and Consoling Prayer – The Way of Mystery with Deacon James Keating – Discerning Hearts

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:38 — 21.1MB) | Embed

Episode 17 -The Way of Mystery: The Eucharist and Moral Living– Mystical experiences and consoling prayer. Prayer is earnestly desired, and prayer because something we delight in. Also, the prayer that will spontaneously occur. Another type of experience is the aspect of the sacramental encounter.

Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha.

Check out more episodes at “The Way of Mystery” Discerning Hearts podcast page

WOM16 – The Internal World and External Presence of God – The Way of Mystery with Deacon James Keating – Discerning Hearts

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:43 — 22.5MB) | Embed

Episode 16 -The Way of Mystery: The Eucharist and Moral Living– Deacon Keating and Kris McGregor discuss the internal world and the external presence of God. The importance of silence and recognizing the day of our visitations. Experiencing the love of God internally. We have lived by faith and now move to live by love.

Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha.

Check out more episodes at “The Way of Mystery” Discerning Heart podcast page

WOM15 – The Unitive Way – The Way of Mystery with Deacon James Keating – Discerning Hearts

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:11 — 21.4MB) | Embed

Episode 15 -The Way of Mystery: The Eucharist and Moral Living– The journey begins into the unitive way…the beginning of falling in love with God. Combined with the entry into the sacramental life, living out the moral life becomes more than meeting a “goal” but becomes a “way” of life.

Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha.

Check out more episodes at “The Way of Mystery” Discerning Heart podcast page

WOM14 – Transformation – The Way of Mystery with Deacon James Keating – Discerning Hearts

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:32 — 22.4MB) | Embed

Episode 14 -The Way of Mystery: The Eucharist and Moral Living– The Eucharist summons us like a beacon. Even in the face of scandal, the moral authority of the Church shines through the Eucharist and challenges us to follow Christ in moving forward and allowing our hearts to be transformed. Mortal sin, what is it and how does it affect our relationship with the Eucharist…with Christ? Being present at mass even if you shouldn’t receive…not allowing yourself to be separated from worship.

Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha.

Check out more episodes at “The Way of Mystery” Discerning Heart podcast page

WOM13 – The Purgative and Illuminative Way – The Way of Mystery with Deacon James Keating – Discerning Hearts

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:45 — 22.5MB) | Embed

Episode 13 -The Way of Mystery: The Eucharist and Moral Living– the spiritual life and moral living… understanding the journey through the Purgative and Illuminative Way and their role in the moral life.

Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha.

Check out more episodes at “The Way of Mystery” Discerning Heart podcast page

WOM12 – The Communion Rite – The Way of Mystery with Deacon James Keating – Discerning Hearts

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:18 — 18.8MB) | Embed

Episode 12 -The Way of Mystery: The Eucharist and Moral Living– The Liturgy of the Eucharist part 4: the Communion Rite…The moment of radical surrender…can we do it? When we come forward to communion, what are doing…what are we saying? Will we allow ourselves to be transformed? The moment of silence…will we allow ourselves to be transformed within so we can go out to transform the culture for Christ?

Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha.

Check out more episodes at “The Way of Mystery” Discerning Heart podcast page

WOM11 – The Liturgy of the Eucharist part 3 – The Way of Mystery with Deacon James Keating – Discerning Hearts

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:30 — 21.7MB) | Embed

Episode 11 -The Way of Mystery: The Eucharist and Moral Living– The Liturgy of the Eucharist part 3: The Eucharistic Prayer…God teaching us to pray. What are we doing in our participation and are we truly ready to receive the Body of Christ? Should we, in integrity, receive the Truth of Christ in Communion…do we really believe?

Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha.