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AR#15 – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating, Ph.D.

Family life can be very stressful. We all have expectations. We all have dreams for our families. But sometimes, our expectation and our dreams can be imposed and cause stress. Each member of our family is growing at the rate that God wants them to grow. Grace is maturing in our children. Grace is transforming our spouses. This Advent, in the very heart of our homes, let’s practice the virtue of Patience. Let’s practice the charitable act of allowing each person to grow according to the grace that they can receive. This Advent let’s rejoice, in the very midst of our family, that each member of our family is different, growing and maturing in God in their own way, and at their own pace. And let’s not despair at this growth or maturation, for God loves your children more than you do. God loves your spouse more than you do. Entrust your children and your spouse to God, and then watch them grow.

 

 

 

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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.

 

 

 

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AR-SP1- THE GIFT OF HOLINESS AT CHRISTMAS w/ Deacon James Keating, Ph.D.

This reflection was given during a special advent evening of prayer and meditation service at St. Margaret Mary’s Church, in Omaha, NE on December 16. Deacon Keating was joined by Fr. Mauritius Wilde OSB. This if the first of two talks.

 

 

 

AR#5 – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating, Ph.D.

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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.

 

 

 

AR#4 – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating, Ph.D.

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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.

 

 

 

AR#3 – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating, Ph.D.

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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.

 

 

 

AR#2 – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating, Ph.D.

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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.

 

 

 

AR#1 – Advent Reflections with Deacon James Keating, Ph.D.

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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