creche

Although the antique statue has a broken arm and a few missing toes, the damage is minimal and likely can be repaired. 

I try to imagine what it was like to be there on that night more than 2,000 years ago. What was it like for the shepherds, the Holy Family gathered around the manger and, later, the Magi when they finally arrived at their destination and saw the Blessed Mother and her baby?

Putting up a Nativity scene before Christmas is a reminder to stop and remember what Christmas is really about and to prepare one’s heart like a manger for the coming of Christ, Pope Francis said.

A Nativity scene is a simple reminder of something astonishing: God became human to reveal the greatness of his love “by smiling and opening his arms to all,” Pope Francis said in a letter on the meaning and importance of setting up Christmas cribs.

The creche, and the real-life re-enactments of the Nativity story, still popular in Catholic schools, have helped imaginations enter the Christmas story for centuries.

Thanks to Roger and Marguerite Sullivan’s travels throughout the world over the past 40 years — he for the World Bank, she for the State Department — the Catholic couple has collected at least 500 Nativity scenes.