Sharon Doran serves as the teaching director of “Seeking Truth.” An experienced Bible Study teacher, Sharon has a passion for scripture that will motivate and challenge you to immerse yourself in God’s Word and apply His message to your everyday life.
“Seeking Truth” is an in-depth Catholic Bible Study, commissioned by the Archdiocese of Omaha in response to John Paul II’s call to the New Evangelization as well as Pope Benedict XVI’s exhortation for all Catholics to study scripture. To learn more go to
O Emmanuel,[1] king and lawgiver,[2] desire of the nations,[3] Savior of all people, come and set us free, Lord our God.
We have here a variation on the theme that Jesus, who is Emmanuel – God with us – is present in the Church and in the world as king and lawmaker; yet we need him to come again, we desire him to come and set us free from ourselves through Christ, through his saving birth, life and teaching, death and resurrection and his return in glory, all of which are implicit in our Advent prayer. Vespers on the 24th is no longer Advent, but the first Vespers of Christmas, whose special antiphons take up the theme of the Birth of our Savior.
In Advent, Christ rested in Mary—still, silent, helpless, utterly dependent. The Creator trusted Himself to His creature.
He trusted the expression of His love to her, the expression of God’s love for the world, and of His love of His Father. Just as the work of His love would be trusted to us, in His life in us.
He was dumb, her voice was His voice. He was still, her footsteps were His journeys. He was blind, her eyes were His seeing. His hands were folded, her hands did the work of His hands. His life was her life, His heartbeat was the beating of her heart.
This was a foreshadowing of what the Incarnation would mean for us; for in us too, Christ rests as He rested in Mary. From that moment when the Christ life is conceived in us, our life is intended for one thing, the expression of His love, His love for God and for the world. Our words are to be the words that He wants to speak, we must go wherever He wants to go, we must see and look at whatever He wants to see and look at, the work that our hands do must be the work that His hands want to do, our life the living of His life, our loves the loving of His heart.
Commentary: In this reflection, Caryll Houselander captures the mystery of Advent as a time when Christ, though fully divine, chose to be entirely dependent on Mary. His trust in her—His silent resting within her and reliance on her for every act of love—is a profound image of how He desires to dwell within us. Just as Mary’s life became an expression of Christ’s love, so too are we invited to embody His presence in the world. Houselander’s words remind Catholics that, from the moment we accept Christ into our lives, we are called to be His heart, His voice, His hands, and His vision in the world, reflecting His love for the Father and for all people.
Personal Reflection: Consider the ways in which your life can reflect Christ’s love more fully. What words, actions, or ways of seeing others might you allow Christ to transform in you, so that you become a clearer expression of His love in the world?
Quote taken from – Caryll Houselander The Passion of the Infant Christ, Sheed & Ward, 1949
O Lord, infant Jesus, inspire us to be repulsed by sin! You, Lord, are holy but we are not. We pray that you will make us holy and keep us from temptation this Christmas.
Divine Infant,
after the wonders of Your birth in Bethlehem,
You wished to extend Your infinite mercy to the whole world
by calling the Wise Men by heavenly inspiration to Your crib,
which was in this way changed into a royal throne.
You graciously received those holy men
who were obedient to the Divine call
and hastened to Your feet.
They recognized and worshipped You as Prince of Peace,
the Redeemer of mankind,
and the very Son of God.
Show us also Your goodness and almighty power.
Enlighten our minds,
strengthen our wills,
and inflame our hearts to know You,
to serve You,
and to love You in this life,
that we may merit to find our joy in You eternally in the life to come.
Jesus, most powerful Child,
We implore You again to help us
with the intentions we hold in the depths of our hearts.
Divine Child, great omnipotent God,
I implore through Your most Holy Mother’s most powerful intercession,
and through the boundless mercy of Your omnipotence as God,
for a favorable answer to my prayer during this Novena.
Grant us the grace of possessing You eternally
with Mary and Joseph
and of adoring You with Your holy angels and saints.
An Advent Journey for the Discerning Heart:
Prepare your heart for Christ through Scripture, the saints, and the gentle practice of daily listening.
Part Four: Welcoming Christ with a Heart Fully Awake
DAY 24 – Joy
“Behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10–11 RSV
Joy is the fruit of love recognized. It is not the same as happiness or emotional excitement. Happiness often depends on what happens around us such as success, comfort, or ease.
Joy, however, springs from the awareness that God is present and faithful, even when life is uncertain or difficult. It is the quiet strength that comes from knowing that love has already triumphed, that the Savior has come, and that His light cannot be overcome.
Advent joy rises quietly from trust. The Savior is near, and the world is already beginning to turn toward light.
Joy awakens when the heart listens and perceives that grace is at work in hidden ways. It does not deny sorrow or ignore suffering. It lives alongside them, transforming them through hope.
The discerning heart learns that joy and hardship are not opposites. The same heart that aches can also rejoice, because it knows the One who holds all things in His mercy. Joy is the song of faith rising even in the shadow of uncertainty.
As Advent nears fulfillment, joy becomes the radiant calm that prepares the soul for adoration. It clears fear, softens heaviness, and opens the heart to receive Christ with gratitude.
Journey with the Saints –
St. Francis of Assisi
“My dear brothers, rejoice in the Lord always. Let nothing hinder your joy except sin.” St. Francis of Assisi, Admonitions, XXI
St. Francis of Assisi lived a joy that radiated peace. His joy did not come from comfort or success but from knowing that God loved him and that he belonged wholly to Christ.
He taught his brothers that joy is a sign of trust. When the heart rests in God’s providence, it can rejoice even in poverty or hardship.
St. Francis called this perfect joy, the freedom that comes when nothing can steal the soul’s peace because everything is received as grace. His life reminds us that joy is not earned. It is discovered in gratitude, simplicity, and praise.
One Christmas night in 1223, St. Francis wanted the people of his town to experience the wonder and joy of Christ’s humble birth. In the small Italian village of Greccio, he prepared a simple manger with hay, an ox, and a donkey, and invited the villagers to gather for Midnight Mass. When the Gospel of the Nativity was proclaimed, hearts were moved to tears of love and reverence. The people saw with new eyes the humility of God who became a child.
From that night at Greccio, the living memory of Bethlehem took root in Christian devotion, giving rise to the Nativity scenes that continue to fill homes and churches today.
The joy of Greccio was the joy of St. Francis himself: the realization that God had become small so that the world might know His nearness. The discerning heart, like Francis, finds joy by turning again to God in thanksgiving for every small good and by rejoicing in the humility of His love.
Reflection for the Listening Heart
Joy is not an emotion we chase. It is a reality we choose.
It begins when the heart remembers what God has done and believes He is still doing it. When gratitude replaces complaint, when trust replaces fear, joy begins to rise.
Happiness fades when circumstances change, but joy endures because it is rooted in Christ, His presence, His mercy, His promise. Joy grows when we stop measuring our lives by what we lack and begin to notice grace in the ordinary: a conversation that comforts, a task completed in love, a moment of laughter shared, a breath of peace in prayer.
Joy is meant to be lived outwardly. The truly joyful heart becomes a quiet witness of God’s goodness in a weary world. When others encounter someone who carries peace without pretense, patience without bitterness, or gratitude amid uncertainty, they catch a glimpse of Christ.
Ask yourself:
• Where can I let gratitude open my heart to joy today?
• How might I share joy through a word of encouragement, a smile, or a small act of kindness?
To live joyfully is to live as one who knows that God keeps His promises.
A Simple Practice for Today
Pause three times today to name something for which you are thankful.
After each one, say slowly,
“My heart rejoices in You, O Lord.”
Later, when something goes wrong or feels heavy, pause again and whisper the same words,
“My heart rejoices in You, O Lord.”
Let gratitude and trust become your doorway to joy, no matter the moment.
Prayer
Lord Jesus,
You are the Joy of all who hope in You.
Awaken in me the quiet gladness that flows from Your nearness.
Free me from the restlessness that depends on circumstance.
Teach me to rejoice in Your mercy,
to find joy in serving others,
and to rest in the love that never fades.
May my life reflect the light of Your presence,
so that others may discover in me a sign of Your peace.
Come, Lord Jesus.
Let my heart rejoice in You.
Amen.
Second Mode of Discernment – “What am I to do?” The Discernment of God’s Will in Everyday Decisions with Fr. Timothy Gallagher
Fr. Timothy Gallagher and Kris McGregor discuss the second mode of discernment according to St. Ignatius of Loyola. This mode involves a consistent attraction of the heart toward one option over a period of time, particularly during spiritual consolation.
They examine an experience from St. Ignatius’s life where he discerned whether the Jesuits should continue living in radical poverty. Ignatius sought God’s guidance through Mass for 40 consecutive days, experiencing spiritual consolation and a consistent inclination toward radical poverty until the 40th day, when he faced spiritual desolation and doubts.
Fr. Gallagher reminds us of the importance of spiritual guidance in discernment, noting that it’s a process over time rather than a single moment of clarity. He illustrates this mode with the stories of Richard, who discerned a call to Jesuit life, and Jessica, who felt drawn to religious life over time.
Discerning Hearts Reflection Questions:
When have I noticed a repeated interior drawing toward a particular choice during times of prayer and closeness to God?
How do moments of peace or joy in prayer differ from moments of heaviness or discouragement when I reflect on an important decision?
Am I allowing enough time for clarity to emerge, or do I feel pressure to decide before a pattern becomes clear?
How do doubts affect me during discernment, and do they change when I return to prayer or silence before the Lord?
In what ways might periods of interior struggle be revealing resistance rather than the failure of a discernment already underway?
Have I reached a place of genuine interior freedom where I can say, “Whatever you want, Lord,” even if it challenges my preferences?
Who accompanies me in discernment, and how open am I to sharing my interior experience with a wise spiritual guide?
Do I distinguish between being actively engaged in a discernment process and simply feeling stuck or uncertain without direction?
From The Discernment of God’s Will in Everyday Decisions:
“Three Times in which a Sound and Good Choice May Be Made
The first time is when God Our Lord so moves and attracts the will that, without doubting or being able to doubt, the devout soul follows what is shown to it, as St. Paul and St. Matthew did in following Christ our Lord.
The second time is when sufficient clarity and understanding is received through experience of consolations and desolations, and through experience of discernment of different spirits.
The third time is one of tranquility, when one considers first for what purpose man is born, that is, to praise God our Lord and save his soul, and, desiring this, chooses as a means to this end some life or state within the bounds of the Church, so that he may be helped in the service of his Lord and the salvation of his soul. I said a tranquil time, that is, when the soul is not agitated by different spirits, and uses its natural powers freely and tranquilly.
If the choice is not made in the first or second time, two ways of making it in this third time are given below.”
Father Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V., was ordained in 1979 as a member of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, a religious community dedicated to retreats and spiritual formation according to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Fr. Gallagher is featured on the EWTN series “Living the Discerning Life: The Spiritual Teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola”. For more information on how to obtain copies of Fr. Gallaghers’s various books and audio which are available for purchase, please visit his website: frtimothygallagher.org
Sharon Doran serves as the teaching director of “Seeking Truth.” An experienced Bible Study teacher, Sharon has a passion for scripture that will motivate and challenge you to immerse yourself in God’s Word and apply His message to your everyday life.
“Seeking Truth” is an in-depth Catholic Bible Study, commissioned by the Archdiocese of Omaha in response to John Paul II’s call to the New Evangelization as well as Pope Benedict XVI’s exhortation for all Catholics to study scripture. To learn more go to:www.seekingtruth.net
O King of all the nations, the only joy of every human heart,[1] O Keystone[2] of the mighty arch of man;[3] come and save the creature you fashioned from the dust.[4]
This antiphon rejoices that the Lord is king not just of the Jews but us Gentiles as well, who makes them one people, one temple, in which he is the keystone, the crowning glory that holds all in place.[5] We beg the Lord to return again to save weak humanity made in Gods’ image but disfigured by sin.
The Infant Christ is the whole Christ. Christ was not more God, more Christ, more man, on the Cross than He was in His Mother’s womb. His first tear, His first smile, His first breath, His first pulsation in the womb of His Mother, could have redeemed the world.
In fact Christ chose the life of growth and work and suffering and the death on the Cross which we know, but, by His own choice, all this was to depend on a human being giving herself to Him in His infancy, giving her own humanity to the actual making of that infant’s humanity and giving Him her life in which to rest.
If all in whom Christ lives at all, in whom He is an infant—which means anyone whose soul is alive at all—surrendered themselves to Him, resting in Him, that He might rest in them, in each one of them the world’s redemption would begin as it began in Mary, the Mother of God.
Christ is formed in us, and we are formed into Christ, when we rest in Him and He rests in us.
Commentary:Caryll Houselander powerfully conveys that Christ, even as an infant, was fully divine and fully capable of redeeming the world. The Incarnation was a complete expression of God’s presence from the very beginning, even in the smallest and most hidden moments of His life. Yet, by His own choice, Christ lived a fully human life of growth, dependence, and suffering, all beginning with Mary’s “yes” and her nurturing of His humanity. Houselander suggests that we, too, can participate in this mystery by surrendering to Christ within us, allowing His presence to grow and work through us.
For Catholics, this resonates with the understanding of Mary as the model disciple and with the call to embody Christ in our own lives, so that the world’s redemption may continue through our union with Him.
Personal Reflection: Reflect on how you might rest in Christ today, surrendering your own desires and fears to allow Him to take root in you. In what ways can you make space for Christ to “grow” within, following Mary’s example of trust and openness?
Caryll Houselander The Passion of the Infant Christ, Sheed & Ward, 1949
O Lord, infant Jesus, move us to forgive others as you forgive us! Your Divine Mercy is unending! We pray for Your Divine Mercy on us and that we may participate in Your mercy by forgiving others this Christmas.
Divine Infant,
after the wonders of Your birth in Bethlehem,
You wished to extend Your infinite mercy to the whole world
by calling the Wise Men by heavenly inspiration to Your crib,
which was in this way changed into a royal throne.
You graciously received those holy men
who were obedient to the Divine call
and hastened to Your feet.
They recognized and worshipped You as Prince of Peace,
the Redeemer of mankind,
and the very Son of God.
Show us also Your goodness and almighty power.
Enlighten our minds,
strengthen our wills,
and inflame our hearts to know You,
to serve You,
and to love You in this life,
that we may merit to find our joy in You eternally in the life to come.
Jesus, most powerful Child,
We implore You again to help us
with the intentions we hold in the depths of our hearts.
Divine Child, great omnipotent God,
I implore through Your most Holy Mother’s most powerful intercession,
and through the boundless mercy of Your omnipotence as God,
for a favorable answer to my prayer during this Novena.
Grant us the grace of possessing You eternally
with Mary and Joseph
and of adoring You with Your holy angels and saints.
Amen.
“Seeking Truth” is an in-depth Catholic Bible Study, commissioned by the Archdiocese of Omaha in response to John Paul II’s call to the New Evangelization as well as Pope Benedict XVI’s exhortation for all Catholics to study scripture. To learn more go to
Seventh Antiphon – December 23nd: O Emmanuel
Second Mode of Discernment – “What am I to do?” The Discernment of God’s Will in Everyday Decisions with Fr. Timothy Gallagher
Discerning Hearts Reflection Questions:
