Thomas Tommy S. Keating, age 64, of Woodstock, Georgia, passed away on Sunday, September 19, 2021. Tom, it has been an honor to be called your brother. Tommy was a man of very few words with a lot of wisdom, humor, and quick wit. He is also survived by his friends & family, especially his daughters. "I went on retreat with him in 1983," said Arico. Our thoughts and prayers are with your family during this difficult time. I don't know what Dad will do without Mr. Tom to help him solve the worlds problems. There's no place to go to get it. Thomas Keating, a. Atlantic Beach, FL. Tom retired after 31 years as a Teacher & BSI Resource Teacher/Coordinator for the Perth Amboy Board of Education. Comfort the family with flowers or a sympathy gift. The massacres of two world wars, the atrocities of the Holocaust and the gulags, have occurred despite the supposed existence of a divine source of love, truth and compassion. "His passing is a loss for the whole human family and for me in particular," Treacy said. ". Login or Sign-up to show all important data, death records and obituaries absolutely for free! ", "I will forever be grateful for his profound guidance, kindness and monetary help towards Maher, and he will be in my heart and in my prayers forever. Only had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Keating on a couple of occasions the last being at the wedding of his son Tom {Kathy}, he was a soft spoken and very friendly man. Among the Snowmass Trappist community supporting the spread of centering prayer is Meninger, an original collaborator with Keating and Pennington. It was almost not so much about what he said but just about who he is, and his presence. A 20-year-old Keating entered the strict Trappist community at Valley Falls, Rhode Island, in January 1944. If God was there, his silence seemed to condemn him to irrelevance. Tom was an accredited field officer, trained police officers and worked on the SWAT team. They're not a map to follow, but simply a description of what people commonly feel. Thirty-seven "spiritual pioneers and religious leaders" took part, including Keating and other several long-time Snowmass conference participants. Thomas J. Keating, age 86, of Orland Park, born March 5, 1935, at rest June 30, 2021. "Participants met on a very personal level, not wanting any publicity, and just shared their own religious experiences," said Boyle. Thomas S. Keating Obituary We are sad to announce that on September 19, 2021 we had to say goodbye to Thomas S. Keating of Woodstock, Georgia, born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Dignity Memorial brand name is used to identify a network of licensed funeral, cremation and cemetery providers that include affiliates of Service Corporation International, 1929 Allen Parkway, Houston, Texas. You have funeral questions, we have answers. A vote in 1981 on the continuance of Keating as Spencer's abbot was evenly split. During peak periods such as Valentines Day, Memorial Day and most holidays, florists are not always able to keep up to demand. He went west to St Benedicts in Snowmass, Colorado, a community he had helped to found in the late 1950s, and set up a centre for retreats and conferences. There seemed nothing else worthwhile in the world; the more stripped-down his life could be, surely the better. and for Letchworth Village in Rockland County. Within his cell he had nothing but a bed, desk and chair; he owned not even his heavy white and black robes, only his thin-rimmed spectacles, his shoes and his washbag things. There were similarities, but he preferred to put it in the context of Christian contemplation through the ages: of the Desert Fathers or St John of the Cross, who wrote that Gods first language is silence. (Father Thomas liked to add, to that, Everything else is a bad translation.) He also gave contemplation a modern twist, calling it divine psychotherapy. Grief researchers say holding that missing funeral service, even a year or more later, can still help us heal. Devoted father of John M., Michael T., Daniel J. In 1950, while Father Keating was in Rhode Island, the monastery burned down and the monks moved to St. Josephs Abbey in Spencer, in central Massachusetts. Since becoming St. Benedict's abbot, Boyle said, he "had the custom of spending an hour with Thomas every Monday afternoon. Thomas Keating. Unable to respond, Keating said he prayed harder for those he'd left behind. Please consider a donation as requested by the family. You have greatly refreshed me. I heard adults in the next room wondering whether I'd live. A funeral service to honor the life of Tommy Keating will be held at one oclock in the afternoon on Saturday, September 25, 2021 in the Chapel of Roswell Funeral Home with Rev. The Dignity Memorial brand name is used to identify a network of licensed funeral, cremation and cemetery providers that include affiliates of Service Corporation International, 1929 Allen Parkway, Houston, Texas. He lived in his mind. In centring prayer the mind was purified of emotional traumas repressed, often from childhood, in the unconscious, and the false self made true again, open in humility (the greatest strength there is) to grace and to the needs of others. But he also sometimes felt desperate there, unable to leave or find any kindness in his superiors. When my own Dad died a dear friend said your broken heart is the price you pay for loving such a wonderful man .How true for you today. Instead, the Lord seemed to put it into his heart to start a new venture that would spread the contemplative practice among Christians and support them in it. He was predeceased by : his parents, Thomas C. Keating and Bettie Sue Cheairs Keating. Thomas Merton. It may take up to 1 hour for your comment to appear on the website. Kurien, the globally honored founder of Maher ("My mother's home" in the Marathi language), a string of homes for the very poor in various parts of India, said Keating's "spiritual mentorship, advice and leadership have been invaluable to me" and that "listening to him has been a deep spiritual experience and inspiration. The path he recommended, by contrast, was gentle. Ways to honor THOMAS KEATING's life and legacy. He was also a member of the Coast Guard Reserve. In the documentary, he describes the painful break from family and friends: "I broke communication with everyone I knew and prayed for my family daily. But that was a treasure so immense and inexhaustible that, after a while, he could not bear to go on locking it up within himself. Arrangements were under the direction of Applebee-McPhillips Funeral Home, Inc. To follow Thomas's story, enter your email. He even went snowmobiling with my husband. "He changed lives and not just ideas. He served as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Enterprise National Bank prior to his tenure at BCB. He received service awards from Marist High School and All Saints Catholic Academy. This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline "Silence as Presence", Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents, The present focus of the war in Ukraine is merely a wasteland, The artists elder daughter, muse and expert on his work died on December 20th, aged 87, Pakistans former military leader died on February 5th, aged 79, Published since September 1843 to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.. Funeral arrangement under the care ofMiller-Ward Funeral Home. When his sister Mary speaks about him you feel like she is talking about a saint. An official certificate recognizing your purchase will be included with your email receipt. FOR THE past century and more, many people have assumed that God is absent. As in any relationship the start would be clumsy, but only the intention counted. Keating's temperament, approachability and intelligence clearly played a key role in the success of the Snowmass Interreligious Conferences. Keating's work, are sent directly to prisoners in more than 600 prisons throughout the country," according to Ray Leonardini, a retired attorney who has been a chaplain at Folsom Prison in California for a decade and is founding director of the Prison Contemplative Fellowship. He changed minds and hearts and not just peoples' group affiliations," said Rohr, founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Ways to honor Thomas Keating's life and legacy. If youre in charge of handling the affairs for a recently deceased loved one, this guide offers a helpful checklist. The monks of St. Benedict's Monastery will be co-hosting a memorial service with Contemplative Outreach at 11 a.m. Mountain time, Friday, Nov. 16 at the Spirit of Christ Church in Arvada (Denver), Colorado. That networking, in turn, sparked widening interest in organizational and educational structuring. Loving grandfather of Erin (Ray), Brian (Danielle), Meghann (Ed), Colin (Sarah), Brenden (Ashley), Matthew (Katherine), Virginia, Scott, Aaron, Sean (Kailie), Luke (Tessa). It's surprising how much a musical selection can affect mourning. Such grace and openness in a spiritual elder made me feel so comfortable in his company, and I felt I could share openly with him about my personal struggles, as well as the unique interfaith practices in my own project, Maher. Internationally acclaimed for his extensive writing, lecturing and teaching on the contemporary practice of meditative prayer and on interfaith discourse, Keating had been transferred to the Spencer monastery infirmary on March 26 from St. Benedict's Monasteryin Snowmass, Colorado, for enhanced medical support, St. Benedict's officials told NCR. Parker Keating went to the Buckley School, a private school on the Upper East Side, and Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts before entering Yale. One year later his workshop was taken up by his Abbot, Thomas Keating, and Basil Pennington, both of whom had been looking for a teachable form of Christian contemplative meditation to offset the movement of young Catholics toward Eastern meditation techniques. Thomas 'Tommy' S. Keating, age 64, of Woodstock, Georgia, passed away on Sunday, September 19, 2021. ", "Actually, Father Thomas was a very easy person to have in community and he would not hesitate to ask permission for anything out of the ordinary that he wanted to do," Boyle added. We are sad to announce that on September 19, 2021 we had to say goodbye to Thomas S. Keating of Woodstock, Georgia, born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Keating Thomas P. On March 29, 2014 of Glassboro. Send Flowers. We are very sorry for your loss. Donations may be made to the JDJ Foundation(https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/thomas-p-keating-sr). At the age of five (having sneaked into mass in the mornings on his way to school, not telling his non-practising parents), he made a serious bargain with God: if he let him live to 21, for he had been very ill, he would become a priest. of yours is (many a) 'Here am I' (from Me).' Send Flowers. "And, frankly, no one ever changed his opinion, although he might capitulate once in a while. He was the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for BCB Bancorp, Inc., Bayonne. September 19, 2021 My only communication was with two abbots, neither of whom could give you any friendship or equality. Leave a memory or share a photo or video below to show your support. The Rev. Along with this wife, Renee Keating, Tommy is survived by his two sons, Shawn Keating, wife Jen, of Woodstock, Georgia, and Landon Keating, wife Laura, of Chamble, Georgia; two grandchildren, Tyner and Ramsey Keating; siblings, Kerri Keating Duplechain, husband Stephen, Todd Keating, wife Toni, and Ross Keating, wife Sharon; and several nieces, nephews, extended family members and friends also survive. Keating brought to the wider Catholic community, not least being the success he attained both in bringing the rich contemplative tradition ofLectio Divina brilliantly taught as Centering Prayer to a worldwide readership, and the establishment of Contemplative Outreach an organization committed to the propagation of centering prayer, he was also a leading Catholic proponent of interreligious dialogue, cultivating ties of friendship and understanding between religions. Keating was such a gentle, warm, kind person, a good listener. "The gift of God is absolutely gratuitous," he said. The monks at St Josephs were upset when, after a decade of stern asceticism as their abbot, he began to promote contemplation. Thomas A. Keating LANGHORNE, PA - Thomas A. Keating, 71, passed away Feb. 21, 2013, surrounded by his loving family, in St. Mary Hospital, after fighting a courageous battle with cancer.. Rev. He was 56.. Search by Name. 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