…and laid him in a manger: because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:7) It is with this same sense of renewal that Catholics come to the manger – the stable where Christ was born more than 2,000 years ago. While not ideal, the stable was the first room in which our Savior lived when he came to earth, as 20th century Catholic Italian writer Giovanni Papini notes.
“A real stable is the house, the prison of the animals who work for man,” Papini writes. “The poor, old stable of Christ’s old, poor country is only four rough walls, a dirty pavement, a roof of beams and slate. It is dark, reeking. The only clean thing in it is the manger where the owner piles the hay and fodder. …And now that grass has become dry hay and those flowers, still smelling sweet, are there in the manger to feed the slaves of man.”
Anticipating the second time our savior would offer himself to the world on a piece of wood – this time the cross – the manger itself serves as the first locus of the Incarnation, a meager place but a source of joyful welcome to the Savior of the world.
In the same way, Catholics welcome children into the world through the Church’s teaching on sexuality and marriage. For this reason, too, Catholics around the world work to establish humble yet welcoming pregnancy centers for women and their children.
To take one example, the Population Research Institute (PRI) seeks to help defend and usher in new life to the world by countering the killing clinics of Planned Parenthood with its new initiative in the Caribbean. Helping to open the first-ever full-service Family Care Center on the island of St. Lucia, PRI has helped mothers and their newborn children with free medical care, housing, job training, maternity and baby supplies, and other pre-natal and post-natal aid for mothers and children.
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Population Research Institute, putting people first
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Joseph O’Brien is a Catholic Business Journal correspondent. This is the third in a Catholic Business Journal exclusive five-part daily series of Make Advent Count: Five Ways to Approach the Manger . For more information about pro-life action, go here: www.POP.org
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