What would happen if Joseph and Mary knocked at my door?
Christmas Homily of the Holy Father Benedict XVI, Vatican Basilica, Midnight Mass, December 24, 2012.
God became a child
Again and again the beauty of this Gospel touches our hearts: a beauty that is the splendour of truth. Again and again it astonishes us that God makes himself a child so that we may love him, so that we may dare to love him, and as a child trustingly lets himself be taken into our arms. It is as if God were saying: I know that my glory frightens you, and that you are trying to assert yourself in the face of my grandeur. So now I am coming to you as a child, so that you can accept me and love me.
St Peter's Square, December 24, 2012
Again and again the beauty of this Gospel touches our hearts: a beauty that is the splendour of truth. Again and again it astonishes us that God makes himself a child so that we may love him, so that we may dare to love him, and as a child trustingly lets himself be taken into our arms. It is as if God were saying: I know that my glory frightens you, and that you are trying to assert yourself in the face of my grandeur. So now I am coming to you as a child, so that you can accept me and love me.
Published on 25 Dec 2012
Il presepe del 2012 riproduce i suggestivi Sassi di Matera, sito Unesco che ha ispirato numerosi registi, tra cui Pasolini e Gibson.
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: edward ...
To: Donald ....
Sent: Friday, 4 January 2013, 22:26
Subject: Some more lines
Dear Father Donald,
I do not know whether Nunraw experiences such
strong winds as we have
now. They thump and scream around the house.
I offer you these lines as also a copy for
Heather if you have the time!
Blessings in Domino,
fr Edward O.P.
--------
Father Edward Booth O.P.
Austurgata 7,
IS-340 Stykkishólmur,
Iceland.
The Matera* crib of 2012 in the Piazza
A re-scaled crib has been created
for 2012.
The gigantesque figures designed
to be seen also
by those at the back of a vast
crowd
have not re-appeared.
From ancient Italy, the Basilicata
town of Matera
has been chosen, a back-drop of
this small rupestrian city
before which we intrude on the
daily business of a hundred inhabitants,
permanent or passing, in its
Piazza.
Over all is a simple screen
adjustable to various intensities of blue,
enlivened with projected clouds.
The ancient house-fronts, their
approach steps lovingly worn
by the feet of centuries, drop
with extended homeliness
to the Piazza floor,
peopled with small figures
modelled on contemporaries.
The crib itself, placed
stage-right in a large grotto,
the ox and the ass in adoration.
All the people present could be
imagined as fitting in
crib-visits bei Gelegenheit,
with much care being given to
their placing,
all being socially passed on over
the centuries.
This rupestrial city seems
recollected deeply into God,
some talking, others silent;
they wait with him for the reading
not of folklore but of liturgy,
and for the display.
It is a vista of pious poverty,
perhaps now being surpassed.
The presepologist has made his
name with such contexts
transformed by the passage from
reality to eternity.
Repeated motifs abound as the
collective yet personal consciousness
stirs into life.
Perhaps in the summer, in the
growing and ripening of wheat:
what a splendid transition from
hard-crusted casareccio bread (sold by the kilo)
to the yeast-produced aereated,
bubble-constructed soft dough
edged with hardening, warm and
aromatic!
At the night-vigil domesticity
rises into
the spiritual grandeur of “Blessed
are you poor!”
The visitors are supplanted from
their urbanity.
The music is sung, heart-warm and
expressive
under a lady choir-director.
The town is a gem, the country
around always verdant
from cascading water draining
away, often into lakes.
Contemplation is supported
easefully
from the medicinal power of nature
and the fruits of
cultivation.
Stykkishólmur 4
January 2013
*Not “Madera” with an allusion to
“Our Lady of Madera” (the Patroness of our Sisters), with a possible allusion
to another statue in Indonesia, swept out to sea by a Tsunami, swept back and
deposited in the garden of Buddhist monk, who returned it to the Catholic
Church. There are at least two videos of it: a) Vatican TV recording of the
inauguration available on demand under the programmes for 24 December 2012;
b) A “RomeReport” on YouTube of the
Holy Father's visit the the evening. Google Maps (“Matera, Basilicata”) has two illustrated books, one on the
artistic treasures of the place, the other on the surrounding countryside.
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