God’s Choice of Poverty and Humility
VERŻJONI BIL-MALTI
Points on praying with your imagination:
Visualize the event as if you were making a movie, allow yourself to fully enter the scene.
Pay attention to detail by engaging your senses: sights, sounds, tastes, smells and feelings of the event.
At some point, place yourself in the scene (e.g., as a bystander, a servant, or one of the characters).
Lose yourself in the story. Don’t worry if your imagination seems to be “running too wild” or going beyond the specific text. Trust that God can communicate with you in a personal, evocative way through this prayer.
If you worry about going “too far,” check the result of your imagining:
- Did it lead you closer to God or farther away?
If you find visualization difficult, don’t force it. God may speak to you through an intuition or gut reaction or by hearing or feeling the story more than seeing it.
Ultimately, pray as you are able in a spirit of generosity. God will speak to you through your intellect, emotions, or imagination.
-Adapted from The Ignatian Adventure by Kevin O’Brien, SJ
Find a quiet place and settle in. That place is sacred for this time, because I will be meeting God here. I become aware of my breathing. I ask the Lord for His Spirit to help me shut out distractions, trust in his guidance and feel His presence.
Points for prayer
1. Settle in a quiet place
I read and familiarize myself with the text. I let go of the text during the remaining prayer time.
The Birth of Jesus (Luke 2:1-20)
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
2. I ask for the Grace I wish to receive.
I may ask to recognize and imitate the profound humility and loving action present in the ordinary moments of Jesus’ birth (or it may be another grace).
3. I imagine the scene:
- I recall the persons and purpose of the journey.
- I imagine the place: the road from Nazareth to Bethlehem; it’s length and breadth; the terrain; the place or shelter of the Nativity; How is it furnished?
- I imagine the toil and hardship.
- All this without glamour and fanfare but with great humility and love.
4. I see the persons attentively:
- Mary, Joseph, the Infant Jesus, the shepherds, and any others present.
- What are their faces like? What are they wearing? What are their emotional states? What is happening in their heart?
- I notice their humility and poverty amid such a divine event.
5. I listen carefully to any words spoken/conversations:
- The angel’s message, Mary and Joseph’s conversation, the shepherds’ joy.
- I imagine the internal discourse in each person’s mind and heart.
6. I observe lovingly:
- What are the people doing?
- Ordinary actions in which holiness unfolds: Mary giving birth, Joseph tending to their needs, the baby being placed in the manger, the shepherds rushing to the scene, and praising God on their return.
I feel free to come close to them respectfully and reverently. I may imagine myself as a maidservant, onlooker, or even an animal in the stable… present to serve and witness the scene…
Colloquy: I enter conversation with Mary or Joseph, or with God the Father, or even by speaking to the baby Jesus while holding him. Or I may simply sit in the peaceful silence of the night.
Further reflection:
- What are three ordinary moments (chores, routines, conversations) that I wish went a little differently every day?
- How can I collaborate with God to bring the same great love and humility of the Nativity to those moments, turning them into a “Holy Moment”?
Witnesses
St Francis of Assisi created the first Nativity scene
Francis wanted ordinary people to appreciate the dramatic reality of God’s self-emptying, and so in 1223 at Greccio he recreated the first Nativity scene: “to bring to life the memory of that babe born in Bethlehem, to see as much as possible with my own bodily eyes the discomfort of his infant needs, how he lay in a manger, and how, with an ox and an ass standing by, he was laid upon a bed of hay.”
Source: Christmas: A Special Feast for Franciscans | CFIT
Saint Bonaventure
Reflection on Nativity
The One who is so great and rich became for us small and wanting: he chose to be born not in a house but in a stable, to be wrapped in swaddling clothes, to be nourished by virginal milk, to lie in a manger between an ox and an ass. It was then that “there shone upon us a day of new redemption, restoration of the past, and happiness forever”. . . . So now, my soul, embrace that sacred manger; press your lips upon the child’s feet in a devout kiss: then in your mind keep the shepherds’ watch; marvel at the assembling host of angels; join in the heavenly melody, singing with your voice and heart: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.” (“Tree of Life,” 1.4)
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