Christmas Miracle

In summer 2002, while working on the stained-glass window in St. John the Baptist’s Chapel in Sierabranka (Minsk), I thought once that the chapel’s interior resembles some farm building because of beams on the ceiling.

And suddenly I realized that only the 1st Christmas serving will take part in the church. I also recalled the life and dreams of St. John Bosch that soon the churches, where teenagers who have difficulties in families would gather, will appear in the whole world. I thought: there are so many houses in this Sierabranka district, and there are such teenagers for sure. Their parents originate mostly from the countryside. So the first Christmas in this new little church in Sierabranka would remind them of their origins, of something that could never be forgotten.

This would be a church-cattleshed, where the Christmal miracle took place once. And each visitor would enter the Chapel as a witness of this, seeing straw, hay and Christmas stars and angels.

Thus, the idea of St. John the Baptist Chapel’s decoration for Christmas 2002 was born.

It was then when I suggested father Ihar Lashuk to begin preparation.

And afterwards everything was made by our beautiful Belarusan girls – Valiantsina Loika and her students from “Ranica” club of the children’s national centre. When we were working, everything was quick and merry. Everyone was helping us: common people, administration and even the authorities of a collective farm nearby, where we took hay and straw. It showed that we were realizing will of God.

This interesting idea, I believe, will be taken by other churches, especially in large towns districts, where a lot of people from the countryside live. When such deep feelings are waken up inside a human being, he or she becomes kind; and kindness is something that should unite and cure us today.

So the Christmas miracle will happen again. And again Christ, having come to the church, will remind of himself through love and kindness in people’s hearts.

Photo by A. Yaromenka .