Father Francesco Ielpo, OFM, the custos (Franciscan provincial) of the Holy Land, has issued a Christmas message, “Fragility in Light.”
“The holiest liturgy is celebrated on straw, with the sharp smell of manure, in the caresses of a mother and in the cry of a child,” he said. “Once again, Jesus is not afraid to descend to the lowest point of our humanity, made of violence, sin, pain, tears, and hardship. Once again, He is born and asks us, just as we are, to be a cradle for Him, with the poor straw of our fragility.”
In the 14th century, the Holy See entrusted the care of the holy sites in the Holy Land, including the sites in Bethlehem, to the care of the Franciscan order.