WAVERLY (SNR) - Deacon James Keating will offer a retreat for men, “Christ Chooses YOU... Do You choose Him?” Jan. 10-12, 2020 at Our Lady of Good Counsel Retreat House in Waverly.
The weekend retreat for men will address two challenges: for men to receive the love of Christ at the deepest level, and discover holiness in the secular mission (vocation) of the laity to be transformers of culture.
“How shall the laity make the Eucharist, the action of Christ’s self sacrifice, their guiding reality for living within our culture when many do not know how to take the Eucharist ... beyond the Church doors on Sunday?” Deacon Keating asked.
He said the retreat is for both married and single men.
“What is needed for there to be more vocations [to marriage and the priesthood] is for there to be more mature, courageous and self-sacrificing men,” Deacon Keating explained: “men who think of their beloved more then they think of the themselves. As a result of this contemplative beholding of the Beloved, a man is made capable of self gift in the service of the one he sees as beautiful.”
In fact, there are two shortages, Deacon Keating continued, a “shortage of men who see beauty and thus see no need to sacrifice pleasure in service to it and, secondly, since there is a shortage of men who see beauty, there is a husband shortage.
“We need more mature men who see beyond their portion of entitled pleasure, men with the courage needed to name the truth of their feelings, desires, even their sins. From such mature men will come both priests and husbands.”
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., is the director of Theological Formation at the Institute for Priestly Formation in Omaha, and the director of the permanent diaconate program of the Omaha Archdiocese. He and his wife Marianne have been married for 32 years and they have four children. Deacon Keating is the author of 15 books including, “Spousal Prayer: A Way to Marital Happiness.”
The Jan. 10-12 weekend retreat at the Waverly Good Counsel Retreat House will begin Friday at 8 p.m. and conclude Sunday with Mass and lunch. It will include times for silence and adoration, confession and spiritual direction. Register at: www.goodcounselretreat.com, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 402-786-2705.
