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Day 20:  Christ, the Word of God’s Love

Neither have we any words to tell of God’s love for us, but God gave His Word, Christ is the Word, telling how God loves the word. Everything that Christ said and did and experienced on earth is the Word saying, “see how God loves you!”

Not content to be a human being, Christ wishes to be each human being, and is in fact born in the soul of every one who will receive Him; and in each one in whom He lives, whose life He lives, He is loved infinitely by the Father, loved as what He is, the only Son.

Commentary:  Caryll Houselander expresses the profound mystery of God’s love made manifest in Christ, the Word. Everything Christ did, said, and endured on earth was a living proclamation of God’s love for humanity. This love is not distant or abstract; it is personal and intimate. Christ’s Incarnation reveals that He not only lived as one among us but desires to live within each of us. When we open our hearts to Him, Christ is born anew in our souls, and we are drawn into the infinite love between the Father and the Son. This insight highlights the Catholic understanding of union with Christ, particularly through the sacraments, where we receive Him and participate in this divine love.

Personal Reflection: Reflect on how Christ is born within you, calling you to live in a way that expresses God’s love. How might you embrace this intimate union with Him today, allowing His love to flow through you to others?

Caryll Houselander The Passion of the Infant Christ, Sheed & Ward, 1949,

Image © Trinity Icons / Joseph M. Malham

The post Day 20: Christ, the Word of God’s Love – From the writings of Caryll Houselander – Discerning Hearts Podcasts appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

O Lord, infant Jesus, inspire in us Your selfless love! You humbled yourself to become like us in all things but sin, and even humbled yourself to die on a cross. We pray that you will help us to love as You love this Christmas.

Divine Infant,

Show us also Your goodness and almighty power.

Jesus, most powerful Child,

Divine Child, great omnipotent God,

Amen.

The post A Christmas Novena – Day 5 – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

“He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Humility is the doorway through which Christ enters the heart.

It is not self-humiliation, nor a denial of the goodness God has placed within you. Humility is simply truth: the truth about who God is, and the truth about who we are before Him.

We belong to God. We depend on Him for every breath. We exist because His love called us into being and His love sustains us in this moment.

Humility recognizes this relationship and responds with trust, gratitude, and openness.

Humility makes room. It clears the inner clutter of pride, self-reliance, and fear. It softens the instinct to control and quiets the need to appear strong before others. It allows the heart to receive Christ on His terms, not ours.

In humility, the listening heart says:
“I am Yours.
Come and do what You desire.”

This is why humility is the first virtue of Advent’s final days. It prepares the soul to welcome Christ not as an idea, but as a living presence who desires to dwell within us.

The humble heart becomes a manger, a real place for God to rest.

“It is to the humble and little ones that God reveals His secrets.”

Thérèse understood that humility is not weakness, but availability.

She teaches that God bends low to reach the soul that knows its need for Him. For Thérèse, humility was not about thinking less of herself but about recognizing that everything good in her life was God’s gift.

She believed that humility allows the soul to approach God with childlike confidence. The smaller the heart becomes through humility, the more God can fill it with His own life.

Her “Little Way” is simply the path of the humble soul that trusts God to do what it cannot do for itself.

Thérèse reminds us that humility is the space where God delights to dwell.

Today invites you to let go of the inner posture that tries to hold everything together alone.

Humility is not resignation. It is relationship. It is the heart turning toward God and saying: “I need You. I depend on You. I trust that You are good.”

Humility frees the soul from the exhausting effort of self-sufficiency. It shifts the heart from anxiety to surrender, from striving to receiving.

Ask yourself: Where is Christ inviting me to become small so He can grow within me? What part of my heart needs to release control and make room for His presence?

Speak one quiet sentence of surrender sometime today: “Lord, I give You permission to work in me.”

Say it slowly. Mean it as best you can.

Let it open a small space in your heart for His coming.

Jesus, gentle and humble of heart,

Citations for Day 21

John 3.30 RSV

© Discerning Hearts. All rights reserved.

The post Day 21 – Humility – An Advent Journey for the Discerning Heart – Discerning Hearts Podcasts appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

O Lord, infant Jesus, bring us the Hope that saves! Your birth to the Virgin Mary brought a Hope to the world that continues to sustain us. We pray for a saving Hope this Christmas.

Divine Infant,

Show us also Your goodness and almighty power.

Jesus, most powerful Child,

Divine Child, great omnipotent God,

The post A Christmas Novena – Day 4 – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples;

before you, kings will shut their mouths,

to you the nations will make their prayer:

Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.

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

The post O Radix Jesse – The O Antiphons reflection with Sharon Doran – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

O Flower of Jesse’s stem, you have been raised as a sign for all peoples;[1] kings stand silent in your presence;[2] The nations bow down in worship before you.  Come, let nothing keep you from coming to our aid.[3]

Here we call on the Lord as the seed, flower or descendant of the root or stock of Jesse, the father of King David.  The Messiah comes from a royal line sprung from his human ancestor Jesse.  He is the sign born of the Virgin, for all the nations to see.  The East portrays the prophecy of Isaiah, “the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son,” with the child enclosed in a circle on his mother’s breast and calls that icon the Virgin of the Sign.  We call on him now to come and help our sinful and weary world.

[1] Is. 11:10

[2] Is. 5:15

[3] Heb. 2:3

The O Antiphon reflections are from Musings: Liturgical and Charismatic authored by Fr. Giles Dimock, O.P. and published by Discerning Hearts®

You can find the book here

The post O Virga Jesse – The O Antiphon Reflections from Fr. Giles Dimock, O.P. – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Day 19: The Incarnation in Our Suffering World

Christ was born not because there was joy in the world, but because there was suffering in it. Not to riches, but to poverty. Not to satiety but to hunger and thirst. Not to security, but to danger, to exile, to homelessness, to destitution and crucifixion.

His incarnation now, in us, is in the suffering world as it is; it is not reserved for a Utopia that will never be; it does not differ from His first coming in Bethlehem, His birth in squalor, in dire poverty, in a strange city. It is the same birth, here and now. There is incarnation always, everywhere.

Commentary:  Caryll Houselander reflects on the profound reality of Christ’s Incarnation, emphasizing that He entered the world not in comfort but in suffering, poverty, and vulnerability. Christ came to meet humanity in its brokenness, and Houselander reminds us that His presence continues to dwell within the hardships and suffering we encounter today. His Incarnation is not only a historical event but an ongoing reality in our lives, as Christ is continually “born” in our own moments of poverty, pain, and uncertainty. For Catholics, this resonates with the call to see Christ in the marginalized, the suffering, and the forgotten, understanding that He is especially present in places of need.

Personal Reflection: Today, reflect on an area of suffering in your life or in the world around you. How can you recognize Christ’s presence there, meeting you in that place? Consider how you might bring hope and compassion to a person or situation where His love is needed.

Caryll Houselander “The Passion of the Infant Christ”

Image © Trinity Icons / Joseph M. Malham

The post Day 19: The Incarnation in Our Suffering World – From the writings of Caryll Houselander – Discerning Hearts Podcasts appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

“We love because he first loved us.”

Love is the fullness of the listening heart.

After days of trust, surrender, silence, and hidden fidelity, the soul is ready for the deepest truth of the spiritual life: all love begins in God. We receive His love first, and grace teaches the heart how to offer that love back.

This is the quiet beginning of charity, born from the love that created us and holds us in every moment.

And when the heart receives God’s love, it begins to move outward. This is why Jesus gives the two great commandments: to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and to love your neighbor as yourself. The love we return to God becomes the love we extend to others.

Charity is always relational. It draws us into God and sends us toward those He places in our path.

Before we ever turned toward Him, God loved us into existence. We would not even be here had His love not first willed our being. And in every moment we live, He sustains us in that same love.

Within the Trinity, love is alive and eternal. The Father loves the Son. The Son loves the Father. The Holy Spirit is the living bond of love between them, unity so complete it is one God.

This divine exchange is not distant. Through Christ, we are drawn into it. The Spirit pours the love of God into our hearts. We receive the love that creates and sustains us, and we return it to God through adoration, gratitude, and obedience.

This is why love is a theological virtue. It is participation in God’s own life. It is the movement of divine love flowing in us, through us, and back to God again.

To welcome Christ at Christmas is to welcome Love Himself, to enter the life of the Trinity, and to allow God’s love to shape every movement of the heart.

“The measure of love is love without measure.”

Bernard teaches that the entire spiritual journey is ordered toward love.

For him, love grows as the heart learns to rest in God’s goodness, trust His presence, and offer itself in return. True love begins with gratitude, deepens into desire, and matures into generous self giving.

Bernard emphasizes that we do not begin this journey. God initiates it. He stirs the heart with His own love and gives the grace by which we love Him back.

Charity is not our achievement. It is God’s work in us.

To welcome Christ is to welcome this transforming movement of love that draws us into the very heart of the Trinity.

Today invites you to stand before the truth of who you are: beloved by God.

You are not loved because you earn it.
You are loved because God is love,
and He chose to bring you into being through love
and sustain you in every breath.

Let this truth shape the way you listen today. Ask Christ to awaken in you a renewed desire to love as you have been loved. Let His love soften your heart, steady your thoughts, and move you toward others with patience, warmth, and compassion.

Ask yourself:
Where is Christ inviting me to love today.
Who needs to experience God’s love through my presence or my kindness.

Perform one quiet act of love today.

Lord Jesus,

Citations for Day 20

1 John 4.19 RSV

© Discerning Hearts. All rights reserved.

The post Day 20 – Love – An Advent Journey for the Discerning Heart – Discerning Hearts Podcasts appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel,

who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush

and gave him the law on Sinai:

Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

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

The post O Adonai – O Antiphons Reflections with Sharon Doran – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

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O Sacred Lord of Ancient Israel[1] who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush,[2] who gave him the holy law on Sinai.  Come stretch out your mighty hand to set us free.[3]

God gave his name Yahweh to Moses, and with that power over him; for to the Hebrew to use one’s name is to have intimacy with that person and thus to have power over him.  Yet God cannot be like the gods of the pagans who are coerced by magical practices and so his name is not to be pronounced but instead “Adonai” or “Lord” is used.  In the fulness of time, the Messiah will come and tell us to pray in his name of Jesus, with all the implications of that.  We pray now that he come again with outstretched arm, that is with power to set us free.  In the words of St. Justin, “He stretched out his arms on the cross,” and was rendered powerless and received from his Father the power of the Spirit to set us free from our sinful selves.

[1] Exod. 6:2

[2] Exod. 3:2

[3] Exod. 6:6

The O Antiphon reflections are from Musings: Liturgical and Charismatic authored by Fr. Giles Dimock, O.P. and published by Discerning Hearts®

You can find the book here

The post O Adonai – The O Antiphon Reflections from Fr. Giles Dimock, O.P. – Discerning Hearts Podcast appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.