Seeking the reason for the season? Ridgewood church presents Christmas story in a beautiful way
Stopping to gaze at and pray before a Nativity scene is one of the best ways to remember the real meaning of Christmas, Pope Francis said in early December.
Catholics can do just that at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Ridgewood, where the parish’s intricate crèche has become a tradition over the last seven years bringing the Christmas story to life and joy to parishioners and visitors through the holiday season.
The crèche’s landscape and the scenes have grown far beyond the holy family, the shepherds, and the Three Wise Men.
At 8-by-8 feet, it takes over the alcove dedicated to St. Joseph from November to mid-January. The artist, creator, and architect, Lordes Ordonez, says she doesn’t have a professional art background.
“I am just a mom and a housewife,” she says.
The crèche, which is different each year, is inspired by the intricate nativities she grew up with in Spain. And her faith inspires the scenes depicted within the nativity.
The figurines are the only thing that is purchased. Ordonez creates mountainous regions, waterfalls, desert areas, and also the architecture that dots the landscape — houses, castles, gardens, stables, and even pyramids.
Parishioner Monica Dura paints the landscape. Anthony Bussanich, as an engineer, problem-solves, such as setting up the live fish exhibit and the waterfalls. Father Anthony Palombo, the parochial vicar of the church, is the cheerleader and the gopher, he says.
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The creche reflects many familiar Biblical stories: The Angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary to tell her she will conceive the Son of God. Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth when they are both expecting. An angel visiting Joseph in a dream. The census. Mary and Joseph rejected at the inn. The birth of Christ in a cave. The shepherds in the field. The Three Wise Men’s visit. King Herod and the execution of the innocents. The family’s flight to Egypt.
Father Palombo says that the crèche is not an attempt to “accurately replicate” the geography of Nazareth. Ordonez says, however, this year’s landscape is more authentic and arid looking due to her visit with the Catechism class over the summer to Jerusalem, Egypt, and Jordan.
But Father Palombo says visitors can use the OLMC nativity to accompany the Holy Family through the events surrounding Christmas.
“Simple and familiar, the Nativity scene recalls a Christmas that is different from the consumerist and commercial Christmas. It is something else. It reminds us how good it is for us to cherish moments of silence and prayer in our days, often overwhelmed by frenzy,” Pope Francis said when visiting the artists of the Vatican Nativity this year, as reported by Catholic News Service.
The OLMC creche will be up until Jan. 6, the Feast of Epiphany, which marks the end of Christmas and celebrates the revelation to the Three Wise Men that Jesus was the Son of God, and also in Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan. The crèche can be visited Monday-Friday 6 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m. (following Mass).
Photos by Alexandra Rojas, Maria Margiotta, and Jessica Miano/ Archdiocese of Newark
