Fr CARLO GIUSEPPE ADESSO Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro - lecturer in Church History We are inside St Catherine's Church, which is the convent church of the Franciscans of Bethlehem, as well as the seat of the Latin parish of Bethlehem. Inside this church, Latin-rite Christians celebrate. Next to it, in the basilica, Armenian-rite Christians and Greek-rite Christians celebrate. What is a rite? Rite is a word that comes from Sanskrit and means: order. That is, the order according to which the liturgy is organised. What is liturgy? Liturgy is that official language through which we give praise to God. And while the people give praise to God, the Lord sanctifies those who perform these sacred acts, which we call liturgy. Liturgy is for example the Holy Mass, liturgy is the sacraments, liturgy is the recitation of the breviary. Closely linked to the liturgy, and dependent on it, are pious exercises, e.g. the rosary, the way of the cross. There are spiritual initiatives by individuals or groups of people, through which people try to enter into conversation with God, into contact with God. These spiritual initiatives are encouraged by the church, but they do not have the officialdom of language, structure and words that the liturgy does. So whoever wants to change the liturgy cannot, because it is established by the church. On the other hand, the exercises can undergo variations, depending also on the sensitivity of the individual or groups. The daily procession of the Franciscans begins in this very church. It is defined precisely as a pious exercise, that is, a set of movements, a set of pauses, through which one tries to reflect and enter more and more into a spirit of prayer within the great mystery of the Lord's birth. The daily procession, it is a journey, it is a kind of pilgrimage marked by certain stops, certain stages. These stages are called stations, the single stage is called a ‘stazio’. We find this kind of custom for example in Rome. The Roman population, in a spirit of penitence and therefore fasting, made pilgrimages to specific points in the city. Perhaps the tomb of a martyr, the burial place of a martyr. There one would gather for prayer, and there the Pope would celebrate Holy Mass. The stationary liturgy was done. We find the same thing here in the Holy Land. A 4th century Spanish pilgrim, named Egeria, left us a mutilated but nevertheless sufficiently accurate account to give us an idea of what the liturgy, i.e. the life of faith, of the 4th century Christian community was like. And indeed, Egeria tells of Christians who also made pilgrimages in an atmosphere of penitence, gathered with the local bishop at certain points in the city and held liturgies there. Often including the celebration of the Eucharist, which was the highlight of this spiritual language. From all this background, from all this context, we come to our procession. A procession that with the passage of time has been structured in certain stages, in certain stops, called stations. Their task is to make us enter, to make us reflect on the specific mystery that that place encloses, represents and communicates. This is, in a nutshell, the core of the Bethlehem procession. It takes place on a daily basis through a history whose first certain attestation dates back to 1384. It has come down to our days through a whole succession of modifications, of changes. These changes have been brought about because of the events linked to the presence and also to the survival of the Catholic community in Bethlehem and more generally in the Holy Land. The Second Vatican Council, in its Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium on the liturgy, expresses the utmost respect for traditions, pious exercises, such as the procession in our case. Utmost respect and at the same time recommends in these exact words that the rites should shine with noble simplicity. They should be adapted to the understanding of the faithful so that they do not need much explanation. They should be transparent in their brevity and beauty. I would say that all this is encapsulated within our daily procession here in Bethlehem. Through the pilgrimage, through stopping at holy places, through listening to the word of God and through song, the faithful are gently and with great clarity accompanied to enter into the individual mysteries that the procession contemplates. In particular the birth, in particular the adoration of the Magi, the slaughter of the innocents and so on. Read More