Go to Part I “Spiritual formation is directed at nourishing and sustaining communion with God . . . This intimate relationship forms the heart of the seminarian in that sacrificial love that marks the beginning of pastoral charity.”[1. Na … [Read more...]
About Deacon James Keating
Deacon James Keating, PhD, is a professor of spiritual theology at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO.
Vir Catholicus: Seminary Formation in Affective Maturity
June 23, 2023 by Deacon James Keating
The Apostolic Exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis, written in 1992, was a major gift to priestly formation from Pope St. John Paul II. Most fundamentally, it was an encouragement to all involved in priestly formation to take seriously the human … [Read more...]
Boredom, Ordinary Time, and God’s Gift of Himself
December 28, 2019 by Deacon James Keating
It is routine to hear people good-heartedly mock the reasonableness of the Church’s liturgical calendar “celebrating” “Ordinary Time.” To celebrate ordinariness is a true curiosity within Western culture, because its members routinely seek e … [Read more...]
Real Celibacy Is an Invitation from Divine Beauty
February 12, 2019 by Deacon James Keating
The personal call of Christ to follow him in a life of chaste celibacy brings a seminarian into a suffering that involves his whole person. Seminary formation serves such a man by assisting him to integrate chastity within his body. Such … [Read more...]
Homilies for June 2016
May 28, 2016 by Deacon James Keating
Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time—June 5, 2013 Readings: 1 Kgs 17:17-24; Ps 30:5-6, 11, 12, 13; 2 Gal 1:11-14A, 15AC, 16A, 17, 19; Lk 7:11-17. http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/060516.cfm The accounts today from our Gospel, and 1 Kin … [Read more...]
Vulnerability as a Place of Divine Encounter
December 14, 2015 by Deacon James Keating
God acts only for the good. God acts only to share himself as Love, namely, Jesus Christ. The human person is invited to respond to this revelation of love with his own vulnerability; he is invited to allow God to act in his being. In … [Read more...]
Giving Our Grief over to the “Man Acquainted with Grief”
June 11, 2014 by Deacon James Keating
With the coming of Christ into the depths of all things human, we now know that even our grief can be given over to the good God ... All losses can become places of life, places of intimacy with Christ, if we show him these wounds caused by … [Read more...]
Imagination, Prayer, and the Spousal Gift
October 22, 2013 by Deacon James Keating
In and through Christ’s Spirit, St. Joseph stands ready to assist any priest in going to Mary, thus concretizing the priest’s own spousal identity. In this essay, I will explore the identity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in her powerful rol … [Read more...]
The Heart of Hope
August 21, 2013 by Deacon James Keating
Since Christians are called to be Christ in the world ... we have to allow Christ’s Spirit to embrace suffering in love within us, for without his Spirit abiding within us, we would never have the strength to suffer out of love. Many of … [Read more...]
Growing in Love of the Lay Life: Evangelizing Martyrs
June 5, 2012 by Deacon James Keating
The Catholic laity are asked to give witness to Christ by way of obedience to objective truth. It takes a mind formed by love itself, Christ, to have the courage to preach the Gospel of Life. The nature of priesthood invites a man to … [Read more...]
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