Living on Manger Street

Living on Manger Street

Author: Stephanie Saldana
Source: Plough Magazine
Link: https://www.plough.com/en/topics/culture/holidays/christmas-readings/living-on-manger-street
Advent placement: 2025-12-23 (paired with [[23-ardbeg-smokiverse]])

Theme: A child singing a lullaby at the manger in Bethlehem - Christmas arriving in its fullness, here and now.

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Verbatim source text

Reproduced from calendar/2025-12-23.qmd (Whisk(e)y Advent 2025).

Living on Manger Street

By Stephanie Saldaña, from Plough Magazine. Enjoy the full reflection at the link.

I watched her approach the place of the manger at the side of the cave, kneeling where Mary had placed the child Jesus on a morning long ago. I remembered giving birth to her in Bethlehem. The long journey. The exhaustion. And finally, joy.

I could hear Carmel quietly singing to the manger. I could not recognize the song. It was nothing I had ever taught her. No, it was a song she had learned in her choir to sing in Spanish¹.

A la nanita, nana, nanita, ea!
mi Jesús tiene sueño, ¡bendito sea!

It took me a moment to understand. She was kneeling at the manger and singing the newborn baby Jesus a lullaby.

And Christmas arrived in its fullness. A child born to us. Here and now.

Footnotes

1. “To the little lullaby, nana, nana, ea! my Jesus is sleepy, blessed be He!”