What do you call it?  The Nativity scene?  The manger? Or the crèche?

Hi, this is Fr. Rocky with another Advent Inspiration.

No matter what you call it, you have to have one inside the house and outdoors on your front lawn to remind all passersby what Christmas is all about. When you go to your Church on Christmas day, you will most likely see a magnificent Nativity scene with Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, a cow, an ox, a donkey, a sheep, some shepherds, angels and even Wise Men.

In Italy, the churches compete to see who can create the most magnificent Nativity scene, and some are quite elaborate. Yes, it takes time to unpack the pieces and put it up, but all the while your imagination and your heart enter into the scene and you wonder what it must have been like in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago when the Christ child was born. We would always leave the manger empty, until Christmas Eve, and then we would put the Christ Child there.