Christmas Eve has its own traditions. Our Franciscan Sisters of Christan Charity have the long-standing tradition of a Christmas procession of singing and carrying the baby Jesus to our outside Grotto after Christmas Eve Mass. The youngest novice has the blessing of carrying Baby Jesus!
Keeping alive St. Francis’s special love for the Feast of the Incarnation, this reading from the Life of St. Francis is read.
“Three years before he died, St. Francis decided to celebrate the memory of the birth of the Child Jesus at Greccio. He had a crib prepared with hay and an ox and an ass. The Friars were all invited and the people came in crowds. The forest re-echoed with their voices and the night was lit up with hundreds of torches. St. Francis stood before the crib and his heart overflowed with tender compassion. Then he preached to the people about the birth of the poor king, whom he called the Babe of Bethlehem.
A knight called John of Greccio, a pious and truthful ma who had abandoned his profession in the world and was a great friend of St. Francis, claimed that he saw a beautiful child asleep in the crib and that St. Francis took it in his arms and seemed to wake it up. This vision was not unfitting for the child Jesus had been forgotten in the hearts of many, but, by the working of His grace, he was brought to life again through his servant St. Francis and stamped upon their fervent memory. At length the solemn night’s celebration was brought to a close and each one returned home with holy joy.”
