Episode Overview

Podcast: Petersboat
Host: R. Ketcham
Episode: The Monday After | on Purgatory and Waiting with Beatific Vision
Date: November 4, 2025

In this contemplative episode, Father R. Ketcham explores the spiritual meaning of waiting through the Catholic lens, particularly as it relates to purgatory, preparation for the beatific vision (the ultimate encounter with God), and the transformation of the heart. Drawing on everyday experiences, scriptural examples, and personal stories, he invites listeners to reconsider waiting—not as wasted time, but as a divine invitation to grow in desire, capacity, and love.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Gift and Purpose of Waiting

• Waiting as Preparation (00:10)
  • Waiting is not wasted time but a necessary process where God increases our capacity to receive Him:
  • "What if we were to look at [waiting] with Christ and to see it as a gift that the Father gives to us in order to prepare our hearts, to prepare our hearts to see him, the beatific vision." (A, 00:12)
• Analogies: Wineskins and Longing (00:35)
  • "The desire and the longing in our hearts pushes out from the inside, like stretching the wineskins to receive new wine without bursting." (A, 00:37)
• Purgatory’s Painful Stretch (01:00)
  • The pain of waiting, as in purgatory, is a stretching of the soul—moving from mere petition (help me) to true surrender (save me), which requires death to self and pride.

2. Everyday Practices of Waiting

• Consumer Culture & Impatience (01:20)
  • Ketcham shares about cancelling his Amazon Prime to re-learn the value of waiting:
  • "It was becoming difficult to wait for anything, expecting it immediately... just having to wait a few days for something is a little practice of waiting incorporated into my life." (A, 01:27)
• Seeing Life as Gift (01:45)
  • Engaging in waiting helps us see all of life—including small things—as gifts, not just consumables.

3. Scriptural and Sacramental Waiting

• Pregnancy and the Beatific Analogy (02:00)
  • Pregnancy is a “waiting to see the face of the child,” much like our longing for God’s face:
  • "In the waiting, the longing grows. And the capacity to truly love this child... grows in the heart of this mother and the father as they wait." (A, 02:19)
• Marriage as Gift, Not Possession (02:40)
  • The Church’s guidance to wait for marriage protects its status as a gift, not merely an act or personal achievement.
  • Marrying in the church is a public witness of gratitude to God for the gift.
• Natural Family Planning (03:00)
  • NFP contains built-in waiting: “It keeps the passion alive because the longing is kept alive… offered a time to appreciate my spouse as gift and not just something for me to take or possess.” (A, 03:12)
• Priesthood Formation (03:30)
  • Years of seminary teach not just knowledge but the patient longing and expectation necessary for receiving the priesthood as a gift:
  • "Unless I grow in my capacity through good formation to receive the priesthood as gift, I could grow to resent this as seemingly being just work." (A, 03:53)

4. Narratives and Cultural Shifts

• Absence Deepens Appreciation (04:10)
  • Waiting to see loved ones can increase our sense of their value and the joy of reunion—something diminished by instant connectivity.
  • "People in the past celebrated with more sincerity…because they had been waiting so long to see each other." (A, 04:23)
• TV in the 80s versus Binge Culture (04:35)
  • Compared anticipating weekly TV episodes to instant streaming:
  • "A 25 minute episode of Growing Pains was more satisfying than the seventh episode of something I'm binge watching on Netflix." (A, 04:41)
• Cooking as Waiting (05:01)
  • Cooking (versus fast food or leftovers) involves anticipation, which enhances enjoyment and gratitude.

5. Biblical Models: Judas and Mary Magdalene

• Judas: Impatience and Taking Control (05:22)
  • Judas acts out of frustration with waiting, unwilling to permit Christ to act in His own time.
• Mary Magdalene: Trustful Waiting (05:34)
  • Contrasts Judas with Mary Magdalene, who persistently “waits on the Lord,” even through His death and is rewarded by being the first to see the risen Christ:
  • "Mary Magdalene was always waiting on the Lord, letting him act, trusting his mysterious ways, permitting him." (A, 05:36)
  • "She is, according to the Gospels, the first to see the risen Christ...because of how well she waited on him in life." (A, 06:01)

6. Personal Reflection: Letting God Love Us

• Dream About His Late Aunt (06:30)
  • Shares a moving dream of his aunt after her death:
  • "You have to let him love you, you have to let him love you, You have to allow him to act. Let him give you the gift of your life." (A, 06:42)
  • Emphasizes that value is found in being, not in doing or appearances.

7. The Meaning of “Waiter” and Biblical Waiting

• Service as Waiting (07:10)
  • Muses on how “waiter” is now an unpopular term, possibly because we dislike waiting:
  • "A good waiter is waiting to first learn from these people...it's not just doing, but one who truly waits." (A, 07:22)
• Israel as a Waiting People (08:00)
  • The Jewish people embody a spiritual posture of waiting, highlighting God’s desire to keep us longing and expectant.
• Psalm 31 (08:20)
  • Recalls the verse:
  • "Wait for the Lord with courage. Be stout hearted and wait for the Lord." (A, 08:25)
  • "Wait for him is not just wasting time, but long for him and permit him to act." (A, 08:33)

8. Becoming Stout Hearted

• Fullness Through Waiting (09:00)
  • Reflects on the word “stout”—meaning brave, resolute, full—and how Christ forms us into people whose hearts are full and ready, not empty and restless:
  • "This is the work he's come to accomplish, to help us be not afraid, to be brave and strong and resolute...Guys, we're growing in capacity as we wait with the Lord." (A, 09:20)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "If we allow then the experience of some waiting in this life for us, we could be preparing ourselves in every experience of waiting to see God." (A, 01:53)
• "The Church's counsel to wait for marriage to a younger couple is just so that they would never lose sight of it as the gift that it is." (A, 02:46)
• "It's so difficult to just let him love us, though we're so slow to believe that that will be enough." (A, 06:30)
• "Wait for the Lord with courage. Be stout hearted and wait for the Lord." (A, 08:25)
• "We're growing in capacity as we wait with the Lord." (A, 09:27)

Timestamps of Key Segments

• 00:10 - The spiritual purpose of waiting
• 01:20 - Lessons from giving up Amazon Prime
• 02:00 - Analogies: pregnancy and the face of God
• 03:00 - Waiting in marriage and priesthood
• 04:10 - How anticipation increases gratitude
• 05:22 - Judas vs. Mary Magdalene
• 06:30 - Personal story: his aunt’s message
• 07:10 - Reflection on being a “waiter”
• 08:20 - Psalm 31 and courage in waiting
• 09:00 - The fullness (‘stoutness’) waiting brings

Conclusion

Father Ketcham beautifully threads together theology, personal narrative, and cultural commentary to invite a radical rethinking of waiting—not as passive or pointless, but as an active, grace-filled preparation for the gifts of this life and the next. Waiting stretches the heart, deepens longing, and increases capacity for love, making us, as the Psalmist says, “stout hearted” in the Lord.