Preparing our Hearts and Homes for Christmas

Fr Peter Edwards   |   13th December 2009

How to prepare for Christmas in three steps:

1. Mass

Decide which Mass you, your Family, and any visitors are coming to on Christmas Day and, of course, on the following Sunday - The Feast of the Holy Family.

2. Confession

Our pre-Christmas Confession needs priority. Choose the Confession time that suits you (either here or at any other Catholic Church of your choice) and schedule it on your calendar or in your diary. Ensure that you have time, a day or two in advance, for your Examination of Conscience so as to make a good and thorough Confession. There were guidelines on the front of last Sunday’s Bulletin (and on the Parish Blog, or the more detailed version here) and leaflets at the back of church and booklets in the Bookshop to help you.

3. The Christmas Crib

Prepare the Christmas Crib in your home - but not too soon! It’s still Advent (time of preparation and waiting). You could begin to do this next weekend (4th Sunday of Advent) when everyone is invited to bring the Bambino (Baby Jesus) from their Crib to Mass for the Blessing of Bambini. But He mustn’t be put into the Crib, of course, until Christmas actually begins with the Midnight Mass.

You could have Mary and Joseph ready and waiting in the Nativity scene, and the Shepherds some little distance away (on the hills outside Bethlehem). During Christmas night the Bambino is placed reverently in the Crib as the Family gathers around to offer a suitable prayer. (See below.) The Magi (Wise Men) must not go into the Crib until the Epiphany (the Sunday after New Year, or more properly the 6th January). Meanwhile they traditionally make a stately procession towards the Crib from elsewhere in the room. The children can move them a little each day towards the Crib…!

The Gospel tells us that the Magi "entered the house where He lay" - i.e. not the stable or cave where Christ was born, since the arrival of the Wise Men from the East may have visited a year or so later. In many countries the Epiphany Crib is often altered to look more like a house.

The Crib is then later removed from churches and homes at the close of the Christmas Season.

This is commonly reckoned as the end of the Sunday after the Epiphany, the Feast of the Lord's Baptism (on the 10th January 2010), before 'Ordinary Time' begins on January 11th.

The Christmas Season, however, long been considered as continuing until 2nd February - the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, also known as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or Candlemas.

In Rome and elsewhere the Cribs remain in all churches until this significant feast on 2nd February.