Receiving an award is always a special moment. During the week, we received an unexpected call:
“Hello, is this the Maria Immacolata Institute in Gorgonzola? This is the FOM in Milan, the Federation of Milanese Oratories… You are invited on Sunday, January 11, to collect the 2025 Christmas Nativity Scene award.”
“We must have won first prize,” the teachers hoped, because ours was not just a single Nativity scene, but as many beautiful Nativity scenes as there are children attending the Nursery School and the Spring Section.
Sunday, 1:00 p.m.: we set off on the subway. Joy and enthusiasm on the faces of the children, parents, principal, sisters, and teachers!
In Milan, we are welcomed in the large hall of the FOM for the awards ceremony. Joining us are children from other youth clubs, parishes, schools, as well as teenagers and families… lots of music for a big party!
Finally called by Monsignor Carlo Faccendini, Abbot of the Basilica of St. Ambrose, we take our seats to receive the award… second place among all the preschools in the Diocese of Milan (is that not enough?!!) with the nativity scene “Natale di luce” (Christmas of Light). The prize is a shiny cup with an accompanying certificate of participation.
And after a tasty snack, we returned to Gorgonzola, proudly carrying our prize.
Our thanks go to all the children who, with the help of their parents and using simply a shoebox (size 24 for the little ones in the Spring section, size 25/26 for the kindergarten children!), created a beautiful Nativity scene with recycled materials and lots of imagination.
NATALE DI LUCE truly lit up the hearts of young and old alike. The anticipation of Christmas was shared within families, rediscovering somewhat forgotten Christian values such as love, peace, hospitality, and above all, collaboration: some glued, some cut out, some painted. It was a beautiful, authentic Christmas.
“It was wonderful to build the stable with my child,” says one father, “I hadn’t done one since my First Communion. Inspired by this enthusiasm and helped by his older sister, we then built a six-meter-long nativity scene at home, using pieces that his grandfather had given us several years ago.”
Often, with simple gestures, children manage to convey feelings that we may have put aside. Our task as adults in difficult times is to help children grow up surrounded by love, joy, and light.
Sister Michela and all the teachers at the IMI in Gorgonzola
