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GOSPEL MEDITATION

December 21, 2025
Fourth Sunday of Advent 

A priest friend recently told me a remarkable story. One of his cousins reported having a vivid dream in which an angel told him the family needed to exhume their grandmother’s body from a cemetery in New York and return it to her birthplace in Romania. She had been dead nearly 10 years. As you might expect, the family thought it was, well, crazy. But astonishingly they exhumed her body. It was incorrupt, showing no signs of decomposition. That experience sparked healing, faith, and reconciliation throughout the family.

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Joseph also receives a dream. He’s confused, afraid. But in the quiet of sleep, God speaks: “Do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home” (Matthew 1:20). When he wakes, Joseph acts. He doesn’t overanalyze or dismiss the message. He trusts, and acts.

God still speaks — not necessarily through literal dreams but through those deeper intuitions of the heart. St. Ignatius of Loyola taught that God’s voice draws us into peace, courage, and love. But we have to listen to it. Advent is a time for stillness. As we prepare for Christ’s coming, we’re invited to enter that quiet space where God’s voice can be heard.

When and how do you become most receptive to God? Is it in silence? In prayer? In nature? At Mass? This week, go there. Be still. Listen. And like Joseph, have the courage to act on what God shows you. — Father John Muir ©LPi