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Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has passed away
Jan. 1. 2023 by Paula.
At 9:34am on Saturday 31st December 2022, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passed away age 95 in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican. His death was announced in Rome Dec. 31st just 3 days after Pope Francis asked at the end of the General Audience for "special prayers" informing us of the late Pope's illness. His funeral is to be held 9:30am in St Peters Square Jan 5. Being a leading theologian in the 20th century and the first pope to resign in 600 years, his legacy will be one remembered for centuries. May his soul rest in peace. Amen.
St Francis of Assisi : The First Nativity Scene
Jan 3. 2023 by Kenechi
Born into a wealthy upper-class family on September 26, 1181, Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone abandoned his luxurious lifestyle to devote himself to Christianity shortly after hearing the voice of God commanding him to rebuild the Christian church. This included returning his expensive clothes and belongings back to his father to live a life of poverty and prayer. He then changed his name to Francis.
St. Francis of Assisi had a special devotion to the baby Jesus and was inspired by the humility, simplicity, and poverty of the stable at the historical place of Christ's birth that he visited while on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1223.
It is said that when he returned to his hometown, he told a friend that "I want to do something that will recall the memory of that child who was born in Bethlehem, to see with bodily eyes the inconveniences of his infancy, how he lay in the manger, and how the animals stood by." And to fulfil this statement, he set up an empty manger inside a cave with a live ox and donkey on Christmas eve. This served as the first ever Nativity scene displayed to the public.
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