December 28, 2023

Our Lady of Fatima Parish to hold Living Nativity Dec. 28

REGIONAL
Staff report

LUDLOW – Our Lady of Fatima Parish will hold a Living Nativity, Thursday, Dec. 28 at 5:30 p.m. outside the parish on Winsor Street in Ludlow. The parish is staffed by the Conventual Franciscans, Order of the Friars Minor Conventuals. This Christmas season people will receive a plenary indulgence if they visit and pray before a Nativity scene in a church entrusted to the Franciscan Friars. The worldwide congregation of the Franciscans just marked the 800^th anniversary of the very first Nativity scene in Greccio, Italy, where St. Francis of Assisi reenacted Christ’s birth with townspeople and friars.

“We are Franciscans Friars who want to share our Franciscan charism with not only our people, but also with the greater community of Ludlow. The 13th century, was not that different than our current day society, a world and time, where the human hearts were cold, indifferent and where people were power hungry, and very individualistic,” said Conventual Franciscan Father Pedro de Oliveira, the pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Parish.

“St. Francis of Assisi desired to celebrate the first live Nativity of the humble birth of Christ at Greccio, Italy, to show everyone there, how humble God is; he became powerless, defenseless, vulnerable, and  child-like, in order to teach us, how close God was to them, and how God who loves us unconditionally,” he said.

According to an article published on  The Franciscan Family – Frati Francescani (ofm.org), the Franciscans 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.”

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, an indulgence “removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin.” The plenary indulgence removes all temporal punishment due to sin if the conditions are met and 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.

“St. Francis’ hope was by celebrating the humble birth of Christ, the warmth of the babe Jesus, would melt away the cold and stubborn indifferent hearts and souls of the people of his time, and that the babe Jesus would heal the hearts of humanity of their selfish ways and create a world that is more fraternal and in solidarity with each other. We friars want the same healing of the human heart to take place in the hearts of the people that participate in our live Nativity,” said Father Oliveira.