December 20, 2023

Plenary indulgence to be granted for praying before a Nativity scene

REGIONAL
Staff report

The Nativity scene is revealed and Christmas tree is lighted in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Dec. 9, 2023. The creche is a reproduction of the scene in Greccio, Italy, where St. Francis of Assisi staged the first Nativity scene in 1223. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

SPRINGFIELD – As the worldwide congregation of Franciscans marks the 800^th anniversary of the first living Nativity scene at Greccio, Italy, the Conference of the Franciscan Family announced last fall that a plenary indulgence will be granted to all faithful who visit and pray before a Nativity scene in a church entrusted to the Franciscan friars.

According to reporting by the Catholic News Agency, a plenary indulgence is “a grace granted by the Catholic Church through the merits of Jesus Christ, Mary, and all the saints to remove the temporal punishment due to sin. The indulgence cleanses a person of all temporal punishment due to sin. However, it must be accompanied by a full detachment from sin.”

The plenary indulgence was to be available from Dec. 8, 2023, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, to Feb. 2, 2024, the feast of the Presentation in the Temple.

A news article on the website of the conference, The Franciscan Family – Frati Francescani (ofm.org), reports that the Franciscan Family forwarded the request for the indulgence to the Holy Father on April 17, 2023 “in order to promote the spiritual renewal of the faithful and increase the life of grace.” By stopping to pray in front of a Nativity scene, the faithful may obtain the plenary indulgence under the usual conditions: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, and prayer for the intentions of the pope.

The website states further: “It is necessary to devoutly participate in the jubilee rites, or at least to pause before the crèche prepared there, spending an appropriate span of time in pious meditation, concluding with the Our Father, the Profession of Faith and invocations to the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph as well as St. Francis of Assisi.”

Following is the text of the invocations:

The heart of the Sanctuary of Greccio, Italy, is seen in 2013 in the small Chapel of the Nativity built in the grotto that, according to local tradition, is where Francis arranged the Nativity of Christ. A rock under the altar indicates the place where Christ’s image was placed in the manger. (CNS photo/Octavio Duran)

Invocation to the Holy Family and Saint Francis of Assisi

Oh Good Jesus, contemplating this Nativity Scene, I ask you for the grace of forgiveness of my sins. You are the dawn from on high made flesh to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death. You made your home among us and loved us to the point of giving your life for us. You did not come to condemn the world but to save it. Give me the grace of sincere repentance and the humility to recognize my frailty. Give me faith in your mercy and renew in me the joy of your salvation.

Mary, Mother of Jesus and Mother of the Church, teach us the joy of the humble and of those who believe in the promises of the Lord. Help us to proclaim the greatness of the God who accompanies and saves suffering humanity. You are the dawn of a new creation. You are Virgin made Church, you are Mother of grace and mercy. Listen to our plea with the tenderness of your immaculate heart.

Saint Joseph, just and faithful servant of the Lord. You are a holy and generous custodian. Do not take your care away from us, lost pilgrims in search of the true homeland. Protect the Church from the snares of the evil one and teach us to trust in the One who gave his only Son to rescue us from sin, evil and death.

Saint Francis of Assisi, you who loved the poor and humble Christ so much that you wanted to relive in Greccio, with faith and devotion, the night of his birth in Bethlehem, intercede for us so that we can contemplate with a clean heart the beauty of the incarnation of the Son of God and the kindness of his gaze that calls us to a new life. Amen.