Crossing the Desert w/ Deacon James Keating

Communal worship speaks to this need. We usually imagine worship as a break in our secular lives, or sometimes even an obstacle to achieving other goals. With this attitude, worship is sometimes simply seen as “time out” from what is really important. Without denying the importance of secular realities for the laity, could we look at worship in another way? Worship is not an obstacle to daily livi...

CTD#5 – "Leaving the Desert" - Crossing the Desert: Lent and Conversion with Deacon James Keating "Celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation is, for many Catholics, a most daunting prospect. This sacrament has been the source of many jokes, composed perhaps by persons seeking to reduce the level of stress they feel regarding one of its main components: naming personal sin. The naming of one's ow...

"Any moral conversion, if it is to be real, must work its way into our minds and hearts. The conversion we undergo is one that transforms our entire person, and so our thought processes, habits, perceptions, and affections all become realigned to a new way of seeing good and evil Patience with ourselves, as well as with ohters who are also in the midst of conversion, becomes the key virtue to cult...

CTD#3 – "Waiting in the Desert" - "The ancient image of Lent as a time of withdrawal is relevant to the formation of conscience if we perceive that our consciences have been inordinately attached to anemic sources of influence. Christians are called to transform the world of culture, work, and politics according to the truths learned through Christ in the Church. It is a powerful and dignified cal...

Episode 2 -Crossing the Desert: Lent and Conversion – "The Desert of Ordinary Life". --The only location for God to interact with us is deep within the ordinariness of our days. We are called to cherish the ordinary day, not because of its routine or common features, but because within this daily forum God reaches us through others, through worship, charity, and our relational commitments. Our dai...

Episode 1 - Crossing the Desert: Lent and Conversion – "The Desert of Consumerism".  Lent wants to remind us of our real identity. At first appearance a seeming “obligation,” Lent is actually a great gift. Are we brave enough to enter this desert, and then let it affect us so deeply as to turn us away from sin and false identities, turn us toward communion with the living God? The Church presents...