As part of Advent preparations, the students and staff of Our Lady of Bethlehem (OLB) threw a baby shower for the Blessed Mother. What better way to celebrate the impending birth of our Savior? Serving students ages six weeks through Kindergarten, OLB is the perfect setting to foster respect for all life and focus on the relationship between mother, child and family.
In mid-December, OLB’s multipurpose room was beautifully decorated in baby shower and Advent themes, and each student got the chance to spend time playing “Pin the Baby Jesus in the Manger,” exploring different nativity sets and baby dolls, singing songs and fingerplays, making a manger craft, and eating some “donkey chow.”
During the shower, students also worked to paint infant onesies and burp cloths for Mommies Matter, a pro-life ministry that joins pregnant women and single mothers on their journey. The event was also the catalyst for a weeklong diaper drive benefiting Bottoms Up Diaper Bank, a longtime partner of OLB, that “helps single mothers provide diapers for their children.” Since 2019, OLB has collected 43,304 diapers, and our students love it when Tim Welsh from Bottoms Up visits with the van to load them up!
The icon of Our Lady of Bethlehem is the young Mary, who said yes to God’s call, on her own journey of faith and courage. Now in its 70th year, OLB employs her example to lead all children to her babe, Jesus.
Young children benefit most from experiential, hands-on learning. From infants crawling on the ground and holding stuffed nativity figures, to toddlers innately cradling dolls, to preschoolers spinning around to place the Baby Jesus in His creche, to kindergarteners forming a nativity scene on a piece of clothing, every OLBer is intimately connected to the unborn Jesus and the salvation story.
This event cultivated the innate characteristics in each of us to love, nurture and protect. Each is in us because we are created in His image and likeness. In turn, we must foster those inherently human qualities to learn to respect all life, knowing each of us is bestowed with human dignity.
OLBers come to know that an unborn child, just like the unborn Jesus, is already fully human. The baby is like us, is one of us, is part of our community, he/she matters and is special, unique. There is excitement that comes in waiting for a baby to be born. We are filled with joy as we get to meet Jesus and the babies that fill our families, schools and communities.
Through our Blessed Mother Baby Shower in the season of Advent, Our Lady of Bethlehem was honored and humbled to support pro-life ministries like Mommies Matter and Bottoms Up Diaper Bank and, in turn, continue our mission as a pro-life ministry of education and care!
