Welcome to Ty Mam Duw’s Crib
Our Father Francis made us the Christmas people in a special way when he made first dramatic crib in a cave at Greccio - for it was Francis who introduced the idea of the crib. We began work on this crib back in 1974 and it has been added to annually ever since! Everyone has worked on it at some point. If you are able to visit it live at TMD, it can be seen from the 26 December to 12 January every year. If you want to bring a party - especially a party with children - can you email us in advance: community@poorclarestmd.or and we will provide an extra warm welcome (and refreshments!)
The Nativity Story
The first Christmas crib
Greccio
In 1223 St Francis conceived the idea of making a Christmas crib to show the poverty and simplicity amidst which Christ was born. To a cave on a hillside near Greccio, he brought a live ox and ass and placed a wooden Bambino in the straw before the rough altar on which Midnight Mass was said. This was the beginning of the tradition of the Christmas crib. It is the small cave, on the floor and underneath the tree
In the beginning...
The Father reveals the pattern of the birth of his Son in the images or types of the Old Testament
Paradise
Our crib starts with Adam and Eve, being sent forth from Paradise clothed in the skin of animals, but with the promise of the Child of the Woman, the New Eve, Mary the mother of Jesus, who will crush the serpent’s head. (Gen. 3:15).
Abraham.
Abraham was the father of the Chosen People and the human ancestor of Christ. He is shown welcoming the three angels at Mamre, who tell him that old as he and Sarah are, they will have a son: Isaac. (Gen. 18:1-15)
Jacob’s Ladder.
Abraham’s grandson Jacob is running away from his brother Esau, whom he has cheated of the birthright. (Gen. 27:1-38) He falls asleep with his head on a stone at Bethel and seeing a ladder of angels going up to heaven, he exclaims “This is the house of God and the gate of heaven”. (Gen. 28:10-17)
Moses and the Burning Bush
History has moved on, and Israel is in Egypt. From out of the burning bush God calls to Moses to deliver them. (Ex. 3:1-22)
The Burning Bush is a fibre optic sculpture!
The Tabernacle in the Wilderness
Preceded by Aaron with the Scapegoat and the Goat of Offering (Lev 16:7-10 the priests carry the Ark of the Covenant (Ex 37:1-9) through the wilderness. They are overshadowed by the pillar of cloud and fire (Num 9:15-23).
Joshua crosses the Jordan
Joshua enters the Promised Land, a symbol of the freedom given by Christian Baptism and a foreshadowing of Christ’s Baptism in the Jordan. Joshua puts pillars by the river to commemorate the event. (Josh 4:9-10 )
Ruth and Naomi
Ruth is also an ancestor of Jesus. She was a stranger, a foreigner to the chosen people, but she became one of the people of God; out of devotion to her mother-in-law, Naomi. Ruth said to Naomi: “Your people shall be my people and your God my God.” (Ruth 1:16-17) They are shown here with Ruth gleaning in the barley fields at Bethlehem. (Ruth 2:1-13)
King David
David, the grandson of Ruth, was King of Israel. To him God covenanted a son who would sit on his throne for ever. (2 Sam. 7:1-17) Shown here with a harp, David is also the author of Psalm 109 (110): “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand” - the psalm most quoted in the New Testament.
The Jesse tree
This is a mediaeval symbol of the genealogy of Jesus, Incorporating David, Solomon and Ruth the tree grows from the side of Jesse, David’s father. Shown here are the ‘Good Kings’ Hezekiah, Josiah, Mannaseh the Repentant and Zerubabel. All on branches of the family tree. (Matt 1: 1-17)
Solomon and Sheba
Solomon, David’s son, built the Temple. (1 Kings 8:22-30) And like the three Kings, the Queen of Sheba (by tradition a Candace of Ethiopia) came to visit him. (1 Kings 10:1-13)
Elijah
In his chariot with fiery horses Elijah is carried off to heaven (II Kings 2:1-12) dropping him cloak for Elisha to gather up. This is the theme of the Spiritual, ‘Swing low Sweet Chariot.’ Elijah is the Old Testament type of John the Baptist
The Deer that yearns for running waters
Psalm 41[42]
The deer come to the fountain [which they share with Paradise and the Immaculate Conception]. This image symbolizes the longing of the Chosen People of the Old Testament for the coming Messiah and our longing for heaven.
The Kingdom of Peace
The crown passed from the descendants of David and Israel went into exile in Babylon. But the prophecy of Isaiah foretells a future age in which David’s stock shall flower and the lion shall lie down with the lamb. (Is.11:1-10)
Daniel’s Vision
King Nebuchadnezzer has a dream which Daniel interprets for him, he sees a statue which stands for all the political kingdoms in history which is destroyed by a Stone that is to come, not cut by human hands (Dan 2:31-45). In the Gospels our Lord reveals himself as this stone, the stone which is rejected by the builders but is the corner stone.
The above scenes from the Old Testament are shown because each is, in some way, reflected in the New Covenant which now takes over.
When the Fulness of time had come...
The coming of John the Baptist
The Archangel Gabriel appears to the priest Zachariah in the Temple. Zachariah learns that he and Elizabeth will have a son in their old age who will have the power of Elijah and make ready a people prepared for the Lord. (Luke 1:5-25)
The Annunciation of the Word
Mary (like Adam and Eve, like Abraham and Moses - and like Zachariah immediately before her) is greeted with good news by an angel - who kneels, here by the gates of Eden. She will conceive and bear a child who will take the throne of his father David. (Luke 1:26-38)
The Visitation of Our Lady to her cousin Elizabeth
Like Ruth, Mary goes to see her older kinswoman in her need and together they praise the Lord. (Luke 1:39-56)
The Birth of Jesus
Jesus is born and laid in a manger, between an ox and an ass, as Isaiah prophesied. (Is. 1:3) He is with his people - even more truly than the presence of the Lord in the Tabernacle in the Wilderness.
The Shepherds
Like Jacob, the shepherds see angels descending from heaven, and they hear the words of the Good News: “A child is born for you.” (Luke 2:8-16)
The Kings
The wise men come to the manger of the Christ Child, following the star. (Matt. 2:1-12)just as the Queen of Sheba came from afar to learn the wisdom of King Solomon.
The Massacre of the Innocents
King Herod is jealous of any power other than his own. His meeting with the three kings prompts him to have the boy children of Bethlehem killed in an effort to extinguish a rival. (Matt. 2:16-18) Except for their feastday on December 28th, the Innocents can be found next to Egypt on their way to heaven!
The Flight into Egypt
Warned by an angel, Mary and Joseph take the Christ Child and escape to Egypt - in a horse-drawn caravan. (Matt. 2:13-15).
The Presentation
Like every first-born son of the people of the Old Covenant, Jesus is presented in the Temple. (Luke 2:22-39)
The Finding in the Temple
Jesus ‘came of age’ when he was 12 and travelling with Mary and Joseph to the Temple for Passover, he remans behind in his Father’s house and begins to teach. Here Mary and Joseph find him and take him back to Nazareth. (Luke 2:41-52)
The Baptism of Our Lord
This is the last of the ‘Christmas mysteries’ and Jesus’ first act in his public ministry. He is baptised by John in the River Jordan, the Spirit descends on him in the form of a dove and the voice of the Father identifies him in an unmistakable way: “This is my Son, the beloved, listen to him.” (Mark 1:1-11)
The Marriage at Cana
Cana is the third of the ‘Epiphany’ mysteries. Jesus turns water into wine at the wedding feast of the New Covenant [John 2, 1-11].
The Immaculate Conception of Mary
Mary the New Eve, with her promised Son who will crush the Serpent’s head [Gen 3, 15], stands with the moon under her feet [Rev 22, 1-2], clothed with the Sun, [Rev 12, 1 & 21, 1-3].
The Church
Beneath the Temple is the Church symbolised by the Rock, either side of which stand St Peter and St Paul.
All those Saints who have their feast at Christmastide can be found visiting the manger on their feasts: St John of Kanty, St Anastasia, St Stephen, St John, the Holy Innocents, St Thomas of Canterbury, St Sylvester and St Basil & Gregory. When their feasts are passed you can find them under the arches of the Church.
The Cross
The crib leads to the cross, and through the cross to glory. Jesus says to the good thief: today you will be with me in Paradise
Christ in Glory - The Trinity
In a triangle - symbol of God the Father, Christ the Eternal High Priest in enthroned on the wings of the dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit behind him in the rainbow.
San Damiano
Just as we began the crib with St Francis, we end on a Franciscan note. In the Christmas of 1252 our mother, St Clare was already dying. As she was unable to come down to the Church to join her sisters at Matins and Midnight Mass God allowed her to see and hear the the Mass at the Church of the Friars on the other side of the city. It is for this reason that the church named her patron of TV and the media.
The medium is the message. That's why we built this crib!
St Colette
This is a Colettine Community!
St Colette, the great fourteenth century reformer of our order had - like all Franciscans - a great devotion to the Incarnation of the Word.
As you know, your Colettine sisters get up in the middle of the night to praise the Lord. Well, in a newly founded house of St Colette’s reform in a city that was being besieged the sister to ring the bell woke up at the wrong time and started to ring the great bell for Matins much too early! The defending army rushed to the monastery in anger, thinking that the bell was some sort of signal to the invaders. At that point all the Church clocks of the town began to chime midnight and St Colette knelt down and prayed her prayer to the Incarnation - which we still recite every night at the beginning of Matins six centuries later.
Blessed be the hour
in which our Lord Jesus Christ,
God and Man was born.......