Merry Christmas from Bethlehem - Church of the Nativity

Merry Christmas--we were in Bethlehem in March

But in lieu of a Christmas Card- we are doing this

blog post.

 Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

 The courtyard of the nativity is where people gather on Christmas Eve to sing Christmas carols, the small door in the background is the entrance, called the "Entry of Humility"

 It was once larger, but was made smaller to prevent horses and carts entering and looting the church. And now you have to stoop, or bow to enter.

 Our tour group entering.

After passing through the "Entry of Humility" you find yourself in the Greek Orthodox side of the church, the church is owned by two orders of the Greek Orthodox church's and the Roman Catholic Church.

 In this picture of Mary, the mother of Jesus is smiling, only in the pictures in the Church of the Nativity is she smiling, because of his birth.  In other churchs she is pictured sad, because of the foreshadow of his death.

 The church is built above a grotto or cave where the birthplace is, this is the entrance down to the grotto.

 This is our group waiting to enter the grotto, in some tours they have waited hours to get in, we were lucky to have a short wait, but were rushed through because they were closing the grotto for a ceremony.

 We had only a few moments down in the grotto, but are so glad we got the chance to see it.

Inside the grotto, between the manger and the birthplace.

The birthplace is the fireplace looking thing on the left, and the manger on the right ( this pic is off the internet because it was too crowded to get a picture like this while we were there)

This fourteen sided star marks the birthplace of Jesus, it is surrounded by marble.  Brian took this picture. 

This is the manger. 

This is called the chapel of the manger inside the grotto.

In this picture off the internet, they placed a baby doll inside the manger to show how it was.

This courtyard outside the Roman Catholic side of the church is where we gathered.  Michael Wilcox talked about the birth of Christ and we sang Christmas Carols.  I was grateful for the singing, I didn't feel the spirit inside the church or near the manger, probably because we were so rushed, but standing outside contemplating on it, and singing about it was a very emotional experience.

Merry Christmas--Remember the Reason for the Season!!