I invite you to pause before the Nativity scene, for there God's tenderness speaks to us.
There we contemplate divine mercy, made flesh so that we may gaze tenderly upon it.
Pope Francis


What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes,
what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life—
for the life was made visible. (I John 1:1-2)


Our prayers are now in the most suitable place,
because they are close to the child of Bethlehem:
they are entrusted to him, who came to live in our midst.
Pope Francis
 

She carried a child, she caressed him, she embraced him,
she whispered most beautiful words to him and adored him.
St. Ephraem the Syrian


May all created things sing and dance with joy,
and contribute in their own way to this happy day.
St. Andrew of Crete
 

Let us celebrate the festive day on which he who is the great and eternal day
came from the great and endless day of eternity into our own short day of time.
St. Augustine


How could he have shown his mercy more clearly
than by taking on himself our condition?
For our sake the Word of God became as grass.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux


The manger was prepared, the hay had been brought, the ox and ass were led in.
There simplicity was honored, poverty was exalted, humility was commended,
and Greccio was made, as it were, a new Bethlehem.
Thomas of Celano, Life of St. Francis