The Meaning of The Nativity Scene
ADVICE OF CHARLES DE FOUCAULD to his sister, about the Christmas Crib.
"Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, my darling, to you and to all your children. I will pray to the Child Jesus for all of you on this beautiful Christmas night...
Do you remember childhood Christmases?... I hope you make a crib and a tree for your children... These are memories, which do good all your life... Everything that makes you love Jesus, everything that makes you love your father's home is so beneficial! ... These joys of childhood, where religion is united in its sweetest aspects to family life in its most tender aspects, do good that lasts until old age...
But there will be even more beautiful Christmases, they will be those of Heaven...
My darling, make your children a beautiful crib and a beautiful tree and a beautiful Christmas, and do your utmost to make their Christmas celebrations sweet, gentle, leaving them with this indelible memory of infinite sweetness...
But, above all, prepare a beautiful Christmas in Heaven for them, sanctifying yourself as much as possible and raising them up not to be of the world, it is not worth it ; the world passes too quickly and it is not worthy of us, it does not deserve our esteem, nor even our looks. We are made for better than that; our heart thirsts for more love than the world can give it; our mind thirsts for more truth than the world can show it; our whole being thirsts for a life longer than the earth can give it hope; do not raise your children for what is despicable...".
