The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-12-25
BETHLEHEM.

perhaps 5000 people. The streets are
narrow; the houses of a whitish stone
and for the most part low and hat
rooted. There was d noticeable clean
mess in the east. AS we climbed the
broken and abrupt streets, the Bethle-
nemites came out to greet us, and we
noticed that they were cleanly, well
and gracefully clad, with a look OF
thrift and cOntentment not often found
among people living in the ''nomad
land." We afterwards learned that
the greater number Of them We're
Christians and that the grace of trans
formation was the transformation Of
grace. Most of the tornspeople are
workers in pearl and carve artistically
on the pearl shells so common in the
country The manufacture of pearl
rosaries is another means of livelihood.
Beggary-the omnipresent back
sheesh"-was absent from the town;
thrifty bargaining everywhere.
We proceeded at once to the Church
of the Nativity, toward the center Of
the town. In the first century of Chris
tianity, the spot made sacred by the
birth of our Lord, was already marked
by church. The present church is one
of the oldest buildings in Palestine.
1t was begun by st. Henela in 327,
and completed by her son, Constantine,
in 1913. In spite of the ravages and
vicissitudes of time, in spite of the
assaults of nature and of man, the
structure remains substantially the
same as it was built those centuries
ago. writer thus describes it: The
building is cruciform, consisting of a
nave and two aisles on each side of it,
the aisles supported by forty ancient
Moorish pillars, with Corinthian CAPT
cealed in a wall which crosses the
lower side of the transept and COM
pletely separates the great nave from
the upper part of the church. Under
the high altar is the grotto of the
Nativity, into which two stairways de-
scend, one ON each side of the high al
tar" With beating hearts we bent our
steps to the grotto, and there, full of
emotion, we knelt at the very spot
where was born Jesus Christ, the Son
of God.
A silver star marks the place with
the inscriptions: "Hic de Virgine Ma
RE Jesus Christus natus est. Here
of the Virgin Mary was born Jesus
Christ. May passages lead hither and
thither into these different oratories;
these tiny chapels are the Oratory Of
the Manager, the Oratory of the Wise
Men, the Oratory of st. Joseph, of the
Holy Innocents, of ST. Eusebius of Gre
mona. of ST. Paula, and her daughter,
ST. Eustochia, and of st. Jerome, for
here was the cell in which the great
Doctor of the Church passed his days
and nights in prayer and study.
The Church of the Nativity has the
privilege of beginning its masses at
midnight the whole year round; and
it was my happiness to say mass in
Al, h. Of f1p
Wise Men, at the very spot where Our
Lard was born and where in all prob
ability He received the homage of the
holy kings from the east. Greater
privilege than this no man can enjoy,
and the memory of it will abide with
me till 1 die.
During the day we visited the Grot-
to of the Milk. Tradition has it that
our Blessed Lady and St. Joseph fled
to this grotto with the Divine Child,
when an angel had informed them of
the cruel designs of HerOd. The Blessed
Mother there sucked her precious child
and some drops of her virginia. milk
fell to the ground, giving the chalky
stone a peculiar efficacy for the mother
nursing her infant
We delayed a moment where stood
the house of the faithful shepherds,
passed the cistern Bir- Miriam, where,
tes old legend says, the waters came
up to the edge to allow Our Lady to
drink onward through the village and
out into the field of Ruth and Boaz, till
we reached the Grotto of the Shepherds
with its olive trees and its rough stone
wall. The grotto is the crypt of the
ancient church built by St. Helena,
where the angels sang their songs of
joy and brought the glad tidings to
the shepherds in their night watch:
Fear not; for behold 1 bring you
tidings of great joy, that shall be to
all the people; for this day is born to
you a Saviour who is Christ the Lord,
in the city of David. And this shall be
sign unto you. You shall find the
infant wrapped in swaddling clothes
and laid in manger. And suddenly
there was with the angel a multitude
of the heavenly army, praising God,
and saying: Glory to God in the high
est; on earth peace to men of good
will
With the sweet song of the angels
ringing in our ears we turned our face
again toward Jerusalem-"an on
earth peace to men of good will. >
Leader.