Скачать или смотреть Daily Reflection December 22, 2025, Weekdays of Advent

The Song of Surrendered Hearts
1Sam 1:24-28; Psalm: 1Sam 2; Lk 1:46-56
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, on this final day of Advent, the Church places before us two mothers whose lives became canticles of praise. Their stories, one from the Old Testament and one from the New, reveal the same profound truth: the greatest blessings flow from hearts that surrender everything back to God.
In the first Book of Samuel, we witness Hannah’s profound act of faith. After years of barrenness and prayer, God grants her a son, Samuel. Now, she does what she vowed to do. She brings the boy to the temple and presents him to the priest, Eli, saying, “I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord.” This is not a mother abandoning her child. This is the ultimate act of trust, recognizing that her son was always God’s gift. She does not cling possessively, but returns the gift to the Giver, and in doing so, unleashes a destiny that will shape a nation. Samuel becomes a great prophet, and Hannah’s surrender becomes the source of immeasurable blessing.
This theme of surrender finds its ultimate expression in the Gospel. Mary, having received the astounding news that she will bear the Savior, visits her cousin Elizabeth. There, she pours out her soul in the Magnificat. Her song is not one of passive acceptance, but of active, joyful collaboration with God’s plan. “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,” she begins. She recognizes that God has looked upon her “lowliness,” and that “all ages will call me blessed.” But the heart of her song is a radical vision of God’s kingdom, where the mighty are cast down and the lowly are lifted up. Her “yes” was a complete gift of self, and her song reveals that such surrender is the path to true exaltation.
Both Hannah and Mary offer their lives and their motherhood entirely to God’s service. Hannah’s offering of Samuel in the temple prefigures Mary’s offering of Jesus in the same temple, and ultimately, on the Cross. As Pope St. John Paul II wrote, Mary’s fiat “shapes the deepest reality of her existence.”
The comfort for us is this: God does not demand our achievements, but our surrender. He asks us to offer back to Him the gifts, the relationships, and the very lives we have received from Him. The challenge is to examine our hearts. What are we clinging to so tightly that we cannot offer it to the Lord? Is it our career, our plans, our children, our reputation?
Like Hannah, we are called to a holy detachment, trusting that what we give to God is never lost, but is transformed for a greater purpose. Like Mary, we are called to sing a song of praise, even when God’s plan turns our world upside down, trusting in His promise to lift up the lowly.
As St. Thérèse of Lisieux said, “Everything is a grace.” Let us, then, make our final Advent preparation a prayer of surrender. May we offer our hearts to the Lord, so that like Hannah and Mary, we may become channels of His blessing and join in their eternal song of joy. Amen.
May God bless you all!