God's love for you - 4th December 2022
Crib Innovator
St. Francis of Assisi created the first Nativity scene in the small town of Greccio, Italy, on Christmas Eve 1223. Francis used his memories from his Holy Land trip to construct the crib. He asked a friend to assemble the materials and explained, “For I would make memorial of that Child who was born in Bethlehem, and in some sort behold with bodily eyes his infant hardships, how he lay in a manger on the hay, with the ox and the ass standing by.” The friars and townspeople assembled around the scene, illuminating the night with candles. There, Simplicity was honored, Poverty exalted, Humility commended; and of Greccio, there was made, as it were, a new Bethlehem. Mass was said on the altar that was made over the manger.
Francis, who was a deacon, read the Gospel and preached the sermon, calling Jesus “the Child of Bethlehem.” Then he picked up the image of Jesus asleep in the manger.
The Baby awakened in his arms, according to eyewitnesses. In addition, more miracles happened. When sick animals in the region ate some of the hay, they were cured. Moreover women in long and grievous labor were safely delivered by putting some of the hay on themselves, and a crowd of persons of either sex suffering from various ailments gained their longwished-for health at that same place. As a result, over the manger, an altar was reared, and a church dedicated, to the end that … men might thenceforth, for the healing of soul and body, eat the flesh of the spotless and undefiled Lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ.
(National Catholic Register)
