As motorists driving past the Living Nativity at Waukegan’s Church of Joy paused for five minutes or more to view actors silently portraying the birth of Jesus, some felt they were emotionally ...

The title of this essay does double duty: it is the title of Botticelli’s painting and the theme I want to explore. On Sundays, we profess our faith in God who is Creator of “all things, visible and ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Around the Christmas season, it is common to see a display of the Nativity scene: a small manger with the baby Jesus and his ...

I cannot remember a time when I did not know the nativity story. I loved feeling that I was a part of it, too: During Advent, my nighttime prayers as a child would take place in front of our Christmas ...

The birth of Jesus was a divine intervention, the moment God Himself stepped into our world as a baby. Now this, in itself, is a gift beyond measure, a gift of love, grace, a gift of salvation that ...

St. Francis’ meditations on the life of Christ led him to create the first-ever Nativity scene in Greccio, Italy, in 1223. Fresco by Giotto of St. Francis of Assisi embracing the Child Jesus at ...

Nativity scenes around the world have added a new accessory this Christmas season: the keffiyeh. In a controversial take on the classic holiday display, some churches are replacing the baby Jesus’s ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. A doll representing the infant Jesus in St. Catherine's, the Franciscan church in the town of Bethlehem. David Silverman/Getty ...

In the New Testament, the Gospels tell the story of Jesus’ birth—the first Christmas. Set during the rise of the Roman Empire, the stories create a radiant image of a young couple giving birth to the ...

One of the oldest depictions of Jesus Christ lying in a manger is on view at the Byzantine Museum in Athens. (Image via Wikimedia Commons) With Christmas upon us, many observers of the Christian ...

(RNS) — The pro-Palestinian creche is intended to point out the disconnect between the idealized Bethlehem of most representations and the reality in present-day Gaza and the West Bank. (RNS) — The ...

From ancient mosaics to Saint Francis of Assisi, depictions of Jesus’s birth reflect the changing conventions of the world’s largest religion Kathleen Brady A tableau of sculptures or living beings, ...