how my grandfather Alipio prepared for Christmas

[This one is a reprint of a story published a few years ago… and re-published online by Our Sunday Visitor this month. I hope you enjoy it:]

Every year of his adult life until his death at the age of 95, my Cuban grandfather Alipio Páez set up a Nativity scene or nacimiento that could easily compete with the elaborate window displays put on by Macy's.

Not satisfied with presenting just the figurines of Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and the cast of usual characters, Alipio would turn the living room of his small house into the whole town of Bethlehem.

This was not just the Bethlehem described in the Gospels, but a Caribbean-style Bethlehem — with abundant palm trees, rivers, houses on the hills, tall blooming trees, all set up on papier-mâché mountains painted in shades of green and brown. My meticulous grandfather even had plastic pigs and cows to keep the miniature sheep and their shepherds company.

No matter what new addition he came up with, Alipio's Bethlehem always centered on the glorious crèche, the physical place where the deepest and most complicated elements of Christian theology became flesh.

My earliest Christmas memories all center on that humble stable, where the mystery and wonder of the word "Incarnation" came to life for me. The virgin birth. The Son of God conceived in Mary's womb. A baby in Mary's arms, both true God and true man. Even as a child, I understood the unspoken truth that the colorful Christmas tree was meant to take a back seat to the stunning Bethlehem scene.

By bringing his own world of pigs and palm trees to Bethlehem Alipio was not saying that the biblical details of the Christmas story were unimportant to him. It was entirely the opposite. By bringing to life the surroundings of the story beyond the historical pesebre, the humble crèche, my grandfather emphasized the central truth — the actual point — of the story!

God so loved the world that He came to be one with each of us, right where we are.

Like Alipio's beautiful nacimiento, Christmas traditions for Hispanics are often a gentle incarnation of the sacred within the ordinary. Through traditions that inspire all the senses -- with songs and sights and delicious smells -- Hispanics bring to life and celebrate the familiar birth story of Jesusito, reminding us what's most important about the Christmas season.

[Click here to read the rest of the story, published originally as "Celebrating Christmas with Hispanic Eyes" in The Priest Magazine.]

Advent is almost over… take time to ponder what the Bethlehem event means for you today!

my Michelle, awed by her great-grandfather's "Bethlehem"!

All in the family: claiming Jesus as one of our own

“The Christian religion asks us to put our trust not in ideas, and certainly not in ideologies, but in a God Who was vulnerable enough to become human and die, and Who desires to be present to us in our ordinary circumstances.” ~ Kathleen Norris

Our Lady of Africa

Images of the Virgin Mary throughout the world often reflect the physical characteristics of a certain race, ethnicity or culture. Much in the same way, I love the way that nativity sets from various regions or countries take on the physical attributes, clothing, and style of specific groups of people.

By giving the holy family our personal ethnicity, we claim them as one of our own, make them a part of our family. And in a very real way, we bring to life the mystery and wonder of the word ''Incarnation.”

As I wrote in an earlier post, my Cuban grandfather Alipio understood this truth as he built el nacimiento each year with a particular Caribbean flavor!

Our family's first nativity set was a generous gift from Michael's parents for our first Christmas. Not long after, one of our close friends in San Antonio, a Marianist priest who led a yearly archeological study tour to Israel, brought us back an olive wood nativity from Bethlehem. 

Over the past couple of decades, I have enjoyed collecting nativity sets from countries that we’ve traveled to, and thanks to Ten Thousand Villages, a few from countries I may never visit—like Bangladesh and Nepal.

As I set each nativity around our house for Christmas, I am reminded of our small “c” catholic (universal) Catholic faith.  We are, indeed, one in Him—the “infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger,” our Savior, Christ the Lord.

This reality is often difficult to conceive (pardon the pun). In God’s infinite love for each of us, for me, the Creator of life became a seven pound human bqby, one like us, in every way but sin. 

We have much reason to rejoice and celebrate!

Our Lady of China

This will be my final written blog post for 2012. But for the next week, I will post pictures from around our home of some of my favorite nativity sets, including what country they are from.

Thank you for walking “Day by Day” with me! 

May peace reign in your homes this Christmas season, and may Jesus be born again in your heart. 

Christmas with Hispanic eyes, el nacimiento

Alipio Páez, "Lelo," at his home in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico

Every year of his adult life until his death at the age of 95, my Cuban grandfather Alipio Páez set up a Nativity scene or nacimiento that could easily compete with the elaborate window displays put on by Macy's.

Not satisfied with presenting just the figurines of Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and the cast of usual characters, Alipio would turn the living room of his small house into the whole town of Bethlehem. This was not ''just'' the Bethlehem described in the Gospels, but a Caribbean-style Bethlehem -- with abundant palm trees, rivers, houses on the hills, tall blooming trees, all set up on papier-mâché mountains painted in shades of green and brown. My meticulous grandfather even had plastic pigs and cows to keep the miniature sheep and their shepherds company.

No matter what new addition he came up with, Alipio's Bethlehem always centered on the glorious crèche, the physical place where the deepest and most complicated elements of Christian theology became flesh. My earliest Christmas memories all center on that humble stable, where the mystery and wonder of the word ''Incarnation'' came to life for me. The virgin birth. The Son of God conceived in Mary's womb. A baby in Mary's arms, both true God and true man. Even as a child, I understood the unspoken truth that the colorful Christmas tree was meant to take a back seat to the stunning Bethlehem scene.

el nacimiento, the main event in Alipio's Bethlehem

By bringing his own world of pigs and palm trees to Bethlehem Alipio was not saying that the biblical details of the Christmas story were unimportant to him. It was entirely the opposite. By bringing to life the surroundings of the story beyond the historical pesebre, the humble crèche, my grandfather emphasized the central truth -- the actual point -- of the story! God so loved the world that He came to be one with each of us, right where we are.

Like Alipio's beautiful nacimiento, Christmas traditions for Hispanics are often a gentle incarnation of the sacred within the ordinary. Through traditions that inspire all the senses -- with songs and sights and delicious smells -- Hispanics bring to life and celebrate the familiar birth story of Jesusito, reminding us what's most important about the Christmas season.

TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE, click here

Alipio's full Bethlehem scene