December 26, 2014

This story appears in the Advent feature series. View the full series.

"O God of delight, fill our hearts with wonder-filled stories. A nurse on the pediatric ward, before listening to the little ones' chests, would plug the stethoscope into their ears and let them listen to their own heart. Their eyes would always light up with awe, but she never got a response equal to 4-year-old David's comment. Gently, she tucked the stethoscope into his ears and placed the disc over his heart. 'Listen,' she said. 'What do you suppose that is?' He drew his eyebrows together in a puzzled line and looked up as if lost in the mystery of the strange tap-tap-tapping deep in his chest. Then his face broke out in a wondrous grin and he asked, 'Is that Jesus knocking?'"

- Author unknown

During Advent 2013, NCRonline.org invited the sisters of the Monastery of Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, Kan., to contribute O Antiphons; Global Sisters Report is sharing some of them this year in Visual Life. You can read the full series as it is republished this month here.

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