SC-1 – 1st & 2nd Stations of the Cross: Reflections w/ Deacon James Keating Ph.D.


The 1st and 2nd Stations – Stations of the Cross with Deacon James Keating

Deacon James Keating reflects on the Stations of the Cross as a profound meditation on Christ’s suffering and its connection to human woundedness. Through this devotion, believers unite their burdens with Christ, allowing His love to transform their struggles into a path of salvation. The first station, Jesus’ condemnation, reveals His silent acceptance of injustice, a model for enduring suffering in communion with God. Pilate represents those who reject truth for self-preservation, while Jesus remains steadfast in His mission. His silence before Pilate and His choice to embrace the cross demonstrate perfect love, teaching that God enters even the darkest places of human suffering to ensure no one is abandoned.

As Jesus receives the cross, Dcn. Keating highlights medieval writings that portray Him as willingly taking it, seeing it as the culmination of His love for humanity. His embrace of suffering stands in contrast to human tendencies to resist crosses in life. The lack of compassion from those placing the cross on Him reflects the tendency to project guilt onto others rather than face personal sin. Jesus receives every aspect of human experience, including jeers and rejection, so that all may be reconciled in His love.


Discerning Hearts Reflection Questions

  1. How does uniting our personal burdens with Christ’s suffering in the Stations of the Cross deepen our understanding of redemption?
  2. In what ways do we, like Pilate, struggle to acknowledge and stand by the truth when it challenges our self-interest?
  3. How does Jesus’ silence before His accusers reveal the depth of His love and obedience to the Father?
  4. What fears or attachments keep us from embracing our own crosses with trust in God’s will?
  5. How does Jesus’ willingness to carry the cross inspire us to accept suffering as a means of sanctification?
  6. In what areas of our lives have we “washed our hands” of responsibility instead of courageously choosing truth?
  7. How can we cultivate a spirit of humility and surrender, following Jesus’ example in His Passion?
  8. What role does the Holy Spirit play in helping us bear our own trials with faith and perseverance?
  9. How does reflecting on Jesus’ rejection and suffering help us approach our own experiences of betrayal and loneliness?
  10. In what ways can we pray for the grace to receive and carry our crosses with the same love that Christ showed?

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

SC-2 – The 3rd and 4th Stations of the Cross: Reflections w/ Deacon James Keating Ph.D.


Episode 2 -Stations of the Cross: Reflections with Deacon James Keating –

The Stations of the Cross – one of the most powerful devotionals alive in the heart of the Church. Reflecting and deeply meditating on the Passion of the Christ, Deacon Keating guides us through the 3rd station (Jesus falls the first time), the 4th station (Jesus encounters His Blessed Mother), and the 5th station (Simon of Cyrene is forced to carry the Cross) along the Way of the Cross.

Deacon James Keating, PhD, the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha, is making available to ”Discerning Hearts” and all who listen, his series of programs entitled “Stations of the Cross: Reflections with Deacon James Keating”

 


Check out Deacon Keating’s “Discerning Hearts” page

SC-3 – Stations of the Cross: Reflections with Deacon James Keating episode 3

Episode 3 -Stations of the Cross: Reflections with Deacon James Keating –
The Stations of the Cross – one of the most powerful devotionals alive in the heart of the Church. Reflecting and deeply meditating on the Passion of the Christ, Deacon Keating guides us through the 6th station (Veronica wipes the face of Jesus), the 7th station (Jesus falls a 2nd time), and the 8th station (Jesus encounters the women of Jerusalem) along the Way of the Cross.

Deacon James Keating, PhD, the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha, is making available to ”Discerning Hearts” and all who listen, his series of programs entitled “Stations of the Cross: Reflections with Deacon James Keating”.

IPF logo small WOM#1 Deacon James Keating – Way of Mystery episode 1 from Resting On the Heart of Christ

For more information on the “Institute of Priestly Formation” and for other material available by Deacon Keating, just click here

Communion with Christ WOM#1 Deacon James Keating – Way of Mystery episode 1 from Resting On the Heart of Christ

Don’t forget to pickup a copy of “Communion with Christ”, it is one of the best audio sets on prayer…ever!


Check out Deacon Keating’s “Discerning Hearts” page

SC-4 – Stations of the Cross: Reflections with Deacon James Keating episode 4

Episode 4 -Stations of the Cross: Reflections with Deacon James Keating –
The Stations of the Cross – one of the most powerful devotionals alive in the heart of the Church. Reflecting and deeply meditating on the Passion of the Christ, Deacon Keating guides us through the 9th station (Jesus fall a 3rd time), the 10th station (Jesus is stripped of His garments), and the 11th station (Jesus is nailed to the Cross) along the Way of the Cross.

Deacon James Keating, PhD, the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha, is making available to ”Discerning Hearts” and all who listen, his series of programs entitled “Stations of the Cross: Reflections with Deacon James Keating”.

IPF logo small WOM#1 Deacon James Keating – Way of Mystery episode 1 from Resting On the Heart of Christ

For more information on the “Institute of Priestly Formation” and for other material available by Deacon Keating, just click here

Communion with Christ WOM#1 Deacon James Keating – Way of Mystery episode 1 from Resting On the Heart of Christ

Don’t forget to pickup a copy of “Communion with Christ”, it is one of the best audio sets on prayer…ever!


Check out Deacon Keating’s “Discerning Hearts” page

SC-5 – Stations of the Cross: Reflections with Deacon James Keating episode 5

Episode 5 -Stations of the Cross: Reflections with Deacon James Keating –
The Stations of the Cross – one of the most powerful devotionals alive in the heart of the Church. Reflecting and deeply meditating on the Passion of the Christ, Deacon Keating guides us through the 12th station (Jesus dies on the Cross), the 13th station (Jesus taken down from the Cross and laid in the arms of His mother), and the 14th station (Jesus is placed in the tomb) along the Way of the Cross..

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. 

More episodes of Stations of the Cross with Deacon James Keating Ph.D.

Check out Deacon Keating’s “Discerning Heart” page

Deacon Keating is also the author of:


You can find the book here.

From the book description:

Deacon James Keating’s book Abiding in Christ: Staying with God in a Busy World is a how-to-pray resource. This book helps readers to find a quiet space wherein they can be present to God and offers suggestions of how they can be more open to God s movement within them.

BTP#24 “Gazing on the Face of Christ with the Saints” Beginning to Pray Special w/ Dr. Anthony Lilles

Dr. Lilles continues his  Day of Recollection offered in April 2013.

Here is the continuation of the first presentation which focuses on the Mystical Saints who can help us to gaze on the Face of Christ:

Anthony will introduce the saints who will guide us through our reflections:  St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Elisabeth of the Trinity and St. John Paul II.  He also answers questions about methods of prayers, teaching others to pray, and how can one help restore the sense of the sacred to the mass and Eucharistic adoration.

Anthony Lilles, S.T.D. is an associate professor and the academic dean of Saint John’s Seminary in Camarillo as well as the academic advisor for Juan Diego House of Priestly Formation for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. For over twenty years he served the Church in Northern Colorado where he joined and eventually served as dean of the founding faculty of Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver. Through the years, clergy, seminarians, religious and lay faithful have benefited from his lectures and retreat conferences on the Carmelite Doctors of the Church and the writings of Blessed Elisabeth of the Trinity. After graduating from Franciscan University of Steubenville, he completed licentiate and doctoral studies in spiritual theology at the Angelicum in Rome. In 2012, he published Hidden Mountain, Secret Garden: a theological contemplation of prayer by Discerning Hearts.  He is the author of the “Beginning to Pray

For other episodes in the series visit the Discerning Hearts page for Dr. Anthony Lilles

 

BKL#3 – Building a Kingdom of Love w/ Msgr. John Esseff – “The Gift of Nothing”

Show 3 ” Building a Kingdom of Love” – “The Gift of Nothing.“

Msgr. Esseff begins by reading a passage from the book “The Gift of Nothing” by Patrick McDonnell.  He discusses how we all think what we will need “something,” but Msgr. Esseff helps us to see what God desires for us to see “the gift of nothing.”  What we desire deep down is intimacy.  Msgr. Esseff offers how Jesus reaches out to us in Divine Love…the Bread of Life.  The Eucharist offers intimacy, will we accept the gift?

Msgr. John A. Esseff is a Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Scranton.  He was ordained on May 30, 1953, by the late Bishop William J. Hafey, D.D. at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Scranton, PA.  Msgr. Esseff served a retreat director and confessor to St. Mother Teresa.    He continues to offer direction and retreats for the sisters of the Missionaries of Charity around the world.  Msgr. Esseff encountered St. Padre Pio,  who would become a spiritual father to him.  He has lived in areas around the world,  serving in the Pontifical Missions, a Catholic organization established by St. John Paul II to bring the Good News to the world especially to the poor.  Msgr. Esseff assisted the founders of the Institute for Priestly Formation and continues to serve as a spiritual director for the Institute.  He continues to serve as a retreat leader and spiritual director to bishops, priests and sisters and seminarians and other religious leaders around the world.   He is the President of the Board of the Pope Leo XIII Institute School of Exorcism.

 

 

 

FG#1 Interior Freedom by Fr. Jacques Phillippe ep 1 – Fountains of Grace with Donna Garrett

FG#1 – Interior Freedom episode 1 – Fountains of Grace: reflections on contemporary spiritual classics with Donna Garrett

Join host Donna Garrett, with Fr. Daniel Brandenburg, LC, as they discuss the spiritual classic “Interior Freedom” by Fr.  Jacques Philippe  a priest of  Communaute des Beatitudes, an international association of the faithful of Pontifical Right founded in France in 1973.  The members of the Community, which has a contemplative vocation based on Carmelite spirituality, are actively engaged in the service of the poor and the proclamation of the Gospel.

Discussed in this episode, among other topics,  from “Interior Freedom” page 12

Donna Garrett is joined in this particular series by Fr. Daniel Brandenburg, LC

“Human beings were not created for slavery but to be the lords of creation. This is explicitly stated in the Book of Genesis. We were not created to lead drab, narrow, or constricted lives, but to live in the wide-open spaces. We find confinement unbearable simply because we were created in the image of God, and we have within un an unquenchable need for the absolute and the infinitive. That is our greatness and sometimes our misfortune.

We have this great thirst for freedom because our most fundamental aspiration is for happiness; and we sense that there is no happiness without love, and no love without freedom. This is perfectly true. Human beings were created for love, and they can only find happiness in loving and being loved.”

For other episodes in this series click here “Fountains of Grace w/Donna Garrett

You can find “Interior Freedom” here

Fr. Jacques Philippe

IP#114 Michael Novak – Living the Call: An Introduction to the Lay Vocation on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor

Michael Novak is a shining witness of what occurs in the soul when the head makes the journey to the heart.  What a gift he is to all of us and what a profound sage of wisdom…when he so gently speaks, I listen….we all should!  In “Living the Call: An Introduction to the Lay Vocation,” Michael, along with his co-author William E. Simon, Jr, establishes, in Part 1, of the book, the need for the lay vocation in the Church today.  They chronicle that need with a national and global perspective.  They also present how “living the call”  looks in the lives of nine committed lay faithful working in parish life today.

Part 2 is worth its weight in gold! It outlines the absolute necessity of growth in the interior life of the laity.  How essential it is to deepen the spiritual life.  They give voice to the need to appreciate the desert experiences of our lives as opportunities for greater unity with Christ; such periods provide the fonts of grace which nurtures the work in ministry.   For anyone who severs in a ministry of any kind, either as an employee or as a volunteer, if you pass this indispensable book by, you do so at your peril!

 

Michael Novak’s website can be found here

 You can find “Living the Call” here

“This is the book that countless Catholic laypeople have been waiting for as they ponder how to respond to Vatican II’s challenge to take more active roles in the life of the Church and to bring Christian principles to life in the secular world. It’s a gem of a book that speaks to laypeople in all walks of life and at all stages of their earthly journeys.”

Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard University