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This Advent, join Bishop Donald J. Hying for Fullness of Time, a new study program reflecting on the Gospel readings for the season. Each week takes up a different dimension of time – the past, the present, the future, and the fulfillment of time in Christ – to discover what God is saying and doing right now, even in a season when it feels like we have the least time to spare.
Download Complete Study Guide
Perfect for individuals, families, and small groups, this four-week program will include videos from Bishop Hying, discussion guides, prayers, saintly role models, and ways to grow in virtue during this Advent journey.
On this page, you will find all the resources for each week of Advent. A printable study guide for each week also can be found with Bishop Hying's videos below.
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“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.”
– Galatians 4:4-5
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Small Group Study TipsGetting Started
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Preparation
If you are using the Fullness of Time Advent Study with a small group, prepare for each session by downloading and printing copies of the study guide, finding the week’s Gospel reading in your Bible, and setting up a laptop or TV to play Bishop Hying’s video. Consider having a crucifix and candle on the table.Session Steps
Recommended Small Group Time: 60-90 minutes- Allow time for introductions, hospitality, and fellowship
- Pray the opening prayer together
- Have a participant read the Gospel to the group
- Spend 2-3 minutes silently meditating on the Gospel and the reflection questions, writing down words or phrases that jump out
- Take 5-10 minutes to share insights and discuss the Gospel
- Watch Bishop Hying’s video
- Use the questions to prompt personal reflection and group discussion (15-20 minutes)
- Review the featured saint and weekly virtue
- Pray the Angelus together using Bishop Hying’s video
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The FutureFirst Week of Advent
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Opening Prayer
Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God, the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming, so that, gathered at his right hand, they may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Gospel Reflection – Mark 13:33-37
Read and reflect on this Sunday’s Gospel. Consider the reflection questions below. For small groups, discuss one or two of the questions as time allows.- What does it look like to stay spiritually “watchful” in the middle of your ordinary, busy days?
- What has God entrusted to you right now, and how does His return change how you carry it out?
- How do you usually respond to not knowing when something will happen – with worry, or with trust?
- Why does Advent begin by looking toward Christ’s final coming rather than His birth?
- Where in your life do you need to trade fear about the future for hope in
Christ’s promise?
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Video & Reflection
Watch this week's video with Bishop Hying. After watching the video, use the questions below for personal reflection and group discussion.Bishop Hying explains that seeing where history is headed helps us understand the significance of both the past and the present. How might keeping the “end goal” in mind change the way you view a current struggle or season of waiting?
Bishop Hying draws a sharp distinction between hope and optimism, describing hope as being “made of sterner stuff” than a vague sense that things will improve. Where in your life have you been relying on optimism when what you really needed was hope rooted in Christ’s victory?
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- Featured Saint: St. Lucy
- This Week's Virtues: Hope and Patience
- Make More Time for God This Week
- Closing Prayer: The Angelus
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St. Lucy
Featured SaintSt. Lucy was born around 283 in Syracuse, Sicily, to a wealthy family. From a young age, she consecrated her virginity to God and resolved to give her dowry to the poor. When a suitor she had refused discovered her Christian faith, he denounced her to Roman authorities during the persecution of Diocletian. Tradition holds she endured torture with remarkable peace before being martyred as a young woman around 304.
Lucy’s name means “light,” and she is invoked as a patroness of sight and the blind. She is often depicted holding a plate bearing a pair of eyes – an image tied to popular legend that her eyes were gouged out (or that she removed them herself) rather than betray her vow. Her calm and joyful acceptance of suffering testifies to a hope and patience rooted not in her own strength, but in trust that Christ was waiting for her.
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This Week's Virtues
Hope and PatienceHope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as true happiness, trusting in Christ’s promises and relying on the grace of the Holy Spirit. It purifies our natural longing for happiness, directing it toward God as our ultimate end.
Patience allows us to trust God’s timing without rushing toward the outcome we want, enduring present challenges without sadness or resentment. God Himself models this across all of salvation history: waiting, preparing, and revealing His plan across centuries until, in the fullness of time, Christ was born.
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Make More Time For God This Week
Wake up 10 minutes earlier each day and read the daily readings or a passage from Scripture.
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Closing Prayer
The AngelusTo conclude the session, pray the Angelus. Use Bishop Hying’s video below.
VIDEO COMING SOON!
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The PastSecond Week of Advent
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Opening Prayer
Almighty and merciful God, may no earthly undertaking hinder those who set out in haste to meet your Son, but may our learning of heavenly wisdom gain us admittance to his company, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God,
for ever and ever.Gospel Reflection – Mark 1:1-8
Read and reflect on this Sunday’s Gospel. Consider the reflection questions below. For small groups, discuss one or two of the questions as time allows.- John the Baptist appears in the wilderness to “prepare the way of the Lord.” What has God used in your own past to prepare you for where you are today?
- John lived simply in the wilderness with nothing extra weighing him down. What could you set aside or simplify this Advent to make more room for God?
- Acknowledgment of sin was part of John’s baptism, not an afterthought. Where might God be inviting you to greater honesty about your own need for conversion
this Advent? - John points beyond himself to one greater than he is. Where might God be asking you to step back so others can see Christ more clearly through you?
- John doesn’t appear in the Temple or a palace – he shows up in the wilderness, a quiet and empty place. Where in your life might God be waiting to meet you in the quiet, ordinary, or overlooked places rather than the obvious ones?
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Video & Reflection
Watch this week's video with Bishop Hying. After watching the video, use the questions below for personal reflection and group discussion.Isaiah’s suffering servant, the promise made to King David – generations of prophecy all converge on Jesus Christ. What difference does it make to you that God was quietly at work on your behalf long before you ever knew it?
Bishop Hying draws a line between reading Scripture as ancient history and reading it as the story you’re actually living inside of. Which Gospel scene, if you let it, might have something to say about what you’re facing right now?
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- Featured Saint: St. Francis Xavier
- This Week's Virtue: Faith
- Make More Time for God This Week
- Closing Prayer: The Angelus
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St. Francis Xavier
Featured SaintSt. Francis Xavier was born in 1506 at Xavier Castle in Navarre, Spain, to a noble family. While studying in Paris, he became close friends with St. Ignatius of Loyola and, in 1534, joined him and five others as one of the first members of the Society of Jesus. Ordained a priest in 1537, Francis set sail for the Far East in 1542, spending the rest of his life as a missionary in India, the Malay Archipelago, and Japan, often laboring in remote, dangerous places with little support. He is credited with baptizing tens of thousands of converts across Asia.
In 1552, hoping to bring the Gospel to China, Francis fell ill and died on Shangchuan Island, just off the Chinese coast, without ever reaching the mainland. He was canonized in 1622 and is honored today as the patron saint of missionaries.
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This Week's Virtue
FaithFaith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and all that He has revealed, entrusting our whole selves to Him rather than relying on our own understanding (CCC 1814). It’s what allows us to look back at the events of Scripture and see more than just old stories about people long ago; the prophecies, the saving events, and the whole history of God’s people become the very meaning of our own lives. This Advent, faith invites us to trust that the same God who patiently kept His promises across centuries is still at work in our lives today.
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Make More Time for God This Week
Inspired by John the Baptist’s call to repent, do a thorough examination of conscience and go to confession this week.
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Closing Prayer
The AngelusTo conclude the session, pray the Angelus. Use Bishop Hying’s video below.
VIDEO COMING SOON!
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The PresentThird Week of Advent
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Opening Prayer
O God, who see how your people faithfully await the feast of the Lord’s Nativity, enable us, we pray, to attain the joys of so great a salvation and to celebrate them always with solemn worship and glad rejoicing. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.Gospel Reflection – John 1:6-8, 19-28
Read and reflect on this Sunday’s Gospel. Consider the reflection questions below. For small groups, discuss one or two of the questions as time allows.- When questioned, John states plainly who he is not: “I am not the Christ.” How clearly do you know who you are and aren’t called to be, right now, in this season of your life? As you have grown closer to God, who are you not anymore?
- John tells the priests, “Among you stands one you do not know.” Christ is already present, unrecognized. Where might Christ be present in your day today, in the people or a moment you’re too rushed or distracted to notice?
- John calls himself simply “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,” content with a small, humble role. What is God asking of you in this present moment, even if it seems ordinary or unremarkable?
- John’s whole identity is wrapped up in pointing to someone else, standing right there among the crowd. How can you participate in our duty to evangelize by pointing people you know to Christ and the Church?
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Video & Reflection
Watch this week's video with Bishop Hying. After watching the video, use the questions below for personal reflection and group discussion.Prayer asks us to simply be present to God, yet thoughts of past and future keep crashing in. What pulls your mind away from God most often when you try to pray?
We can’t love or serve God in the past or the future – only now. If today were the only time you had to love God, what would you do differently before it’s over?
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- Featured Saint: St. John of the Cross
- This Week's Virtue: Perseverance
- Make More Time for God This Week
- Closing Prayer: The Angelus
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St. John of the Cross
Featured SaintSaint John of the Cross was born in 1542 in Fontiveros, Spain, into a poor family. He entered the Carmelite order in 1563 and was ordained a priest in 1567. The following year, he joined St. Teresa of Ávila in her effort to reform Carmelite life toward greater simplicity and prayer, helping to found the first Discalced Carmelite monastery. His support for reform led to conflict within the order, and he was imprisoned for several months before escaping. It was during this imprisonment that he composed some of his most celebrated poetry. John went on to write spiritual classics such as Dark Night of the Soul and Spiritual Canticle, exploring how God can purify the soul by letting His presence feel, for a time, like darkness or absence. He died in 1591 and was later declared a Doctor of the Church.
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This Week's Virtue
PerseverancePerseverance is what allows us to steadfastly pursue good and stay faithful to God in the present moment, even when it’s difficult. Prayer itself is a daily exercise in perseverance – thoughts of the past and future constantly pull our attention away, and staying present to God takes real, ongoing effort. Whatever small practice we’ve chosen this Advent, whether it’s rising a little earlier to pray or simply sitting in silence, perseverance is what keeps us returning to it day after day, even when it feels like a struggle.
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Make More Time for God This Week
Find ways to “pray always” by pairing prayer with existing habits, like walking the dog, driving to work, etc. Plan specific times for prayer. Put a block of 15 minutes a day on your calendar. Set a phone reminder.
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Closing Prayer
The AngelusTo conclude the session, pray the Angelus. Use Bishop Hying’s video below.
VIDEO COMING SOON!
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The Fulfillment of TimeFourth Week of Advent
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Opening Prayer
Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your son was made known by the message of an Angel, may by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection, who lives and reigns with you in the unity
of the Holy Spirit, God,
for ever and ever.Gospel Reflection – Luke 1:26-38
Read and reflect on this Sunday’s Gospel. Consider the reflection questions below. For small groups, discuss one or two of the questions as time allows.- Gabriel greets Mary as “full of grace.” God had prepared her for this moment long before she ever knew about it. Where do you need to trust that God has already given you what you need for what He’s asking of you right now?
- Imagine how Mary felt when she was invited to be the Mother of God. How do you typically respond when God asks something of you that seems impossible?
- In this quiet moment between an angel and a young woman, centuries of prophecy and waiting are fulfilled. Where might God be doing something enormous in what looks, from the outside, like a small or hidden part of your life?
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Video & Reflection
Watch this week's video with Bishop Hying. After watching the video, use the questions below for personal reflection and group discussion.We’re invited to ask where God might be calling us to something new – a job, a vocation, a hard conversation, an act of generosity that feels daring. What “Annunciation moment” might God be placing in front of you right now?
When God calls us to something difficult, He also promises the grace to carry it out. Where do you hold back from something because you doubt God will give you what you need?
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- Featured Saint: Our Lady of Guadalupe
- This Week's Virtue: Charity
- Make More Time for God This Week
- Closing Prayer: Stations of the Cross
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Our Lady of Guadalupe
Featured SaintIn December 1531, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a poor indigenous man named Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill, near what is now Mexico City. She introduced herself as the Mother of the true God and asked that a church be built in her honor on that site. When the local bishop asked for a sign, Mary directed Juan Diego to gather roses blooming out of season and carry them in his cloak, or tilma. When he opened the tilma before the bishop, the flowers fell out – and an image of Mary was found miraculously imprinted on the fabric, where it remains venerated today. Our Lady of Guadalupe is honored as the Patroness of the Americas. Her appearance to Juan Diego stands as a powerful image of God drawing near to the poor and the overlooked, echoing Mary’s own humble “yes” at the Annunciation.
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This Week's Virtue
CharityCharity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for His own sake, and love our neighbor as ourselves for love of God (CCC 1822), which means love of God and neighbor given completely and without reservation. Mary loved God perfectly because sin never stood between her and Him – nothing held her back from giving herself entirely to His will. We are not sinless as she was, but through the grace of the Holy Spirit, we too can rise above our obstacles and love God more fully. This Advent, charity invites us to imitate Mary’s complete gift of self, holding nothing back from God or from one another.
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Make More Time for God This Week
Attend daily Mass or Adoration so that you are being with God in His presence as an act of charity.
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Closing Prayer
The AngelusTo conclude the session, pray the Angelus. Use Bishop Hying’s video below.
VIDEO COMING SOON!
