Will you host Mary and Joseph for a night?

At the end of the November we begin the Season of Advent.

The Posada is an old Mexican tradition where young people dressed as Mary and Joseph travelled from house to house asking for a room for the night and telling people about the imminent arrival of Jesus in the weeks leading up to Christmas. On Christmas Eve they would visit the local church to re-enact the nativity and place figures of Mary and Joseph in a crib.

Modern day Posada uses nativity figures of Mary and Joseph who travel from place to place. This gives each ‘host’ the chance to create their own celebration in their home or place in the community, worshipping and reaching out to their communities with the real message of Christmas, making room for Jesus in their lives.

All you will need to do is to add your name to the Journey Rota, which you will find in each church, and sign the list for a night that will suit you to ‘host’ Mary and Joseph. Then you will need make arrangements to bring the figures to your home at a time to suit both of you. For the evening you ‘host’ Mary and Joseph you can choose to do whatever you like. A booklet will be supplied, with some suggested prayers but you can adapt or add to these as you wish.

It’s good to invite friends, family and even neighbours to join you for the handing over prayers when you first receive the statue. You can even make more of it and provide some refreshments – but don’t feel you have to do this or let this put you off. Above all it’s a chance to celebrate Advent and think about our journey towards Christmas. It’s an opportunity to share our faith with our families, friends and neighbours who perhaps aren’t Christian or who don’t go to Church that often.