The Nativity According To Abbe Constant Henri Fouard, Episode 1

The Return to Order Moment

We want to welcome you to the Christmas episode of the Return to Order Moment. In this annual celebration, we attempt to help you deepen your celebration of this Holy time by reading material that our listeners would be unlikely to find otherwise. This year, we turn to Abbe Constant Henri Fouard (1837-1903). He was part of a tradition of priests who were best known for their scholarly work. In addition to his ecclesiastical duties, Father Fouard was a historian who traveled widely in Palestine, Syria, Greece, and Italy. His extensive travels bore fruit in his many books, including his The Christ, The Son of God – A Life of Jesus, from which these excerpts are taken. He had the ability to write about the scenes of Our Lord’s life that could only come from one who had spent considerable time there tracing the steps that Our Lord Himself took. It is also significant that Father Fouard’s journeys took place in an age when Palestine still looked and felt much as it did during the time of Christ, without the modern traffic, industries, and tourist traps that one finds there today. We decided to bring you this magnificent narrative over two episodes. This week, we will give you the setting of the Nativity and the condition of the people who lived there. Then, we will speak of the Annunciation, the Visitation, and the visions of Saint Joseph. Next week, only five days before Christmas, we will hear of the Holy Family’s journey to Bethlehem, the Nativity itself, the visit of the Shepherds, and conclude with the presentation in the Temple.