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How to ask for a barrel from the Pope, and get it!

love Christmas. I have always loved it and enjoyed Add Ma Btaarif” (“Walk as much as you know”)! Of course, I
I speaking to baby Jesus. I might have learned this from didn’t understand what he meant.
my late mother Henriette who used to greet him every In December 2016, The Holy See assigned an email address
day, or from my late father Jamil who used to entrust baby to receive birthday wishes intended for the Pope. I prayed
Jesus with his family before going to work as a taxi driver. as I usually do, and sent him a letter inviting him to take a
I have always been fond of nativity sets, inspired by two tour in my electronic exhibition and savor more than 3600
friends: Saint Francis of Assisi (who was the first to order the nativity sets provided by ordinary Christians from all over
nativity set as we know it) and Saint John Paul II (who was the world.
the first Pope to use nativity sets at the main Piazza of St. In return, I asked for the nativity barrel of Assisi that represents
Peter at the Vatican). him with St. Francis visiting our savior in a manger! I wanted
One day, 22 years ago, I was asked to conduct a media this gift as a strong message to the Christians of the Levant
training workshop for UN spokespeople in Sudan. This is so as they know they
when I had my first cultural shock upon seeing Black Jesus are not left alone
for the first time. to their fate, and
Ever since, my wife Emily Asmar and I have taken on a new that we will always
hobby: collecting nativity sets from all over the world to see be celebrating
how people represent Jesus in a way that resembles them Christmas and
and reflects our global diversity. We have even acquired a defending our
set from the Eskimo if you care to know. faith in our own
In twenty-two years, we have managed to collect more mountains.
than 120 nativity sets, and we are by no means done. If you, I shared the letter Pope and barrel
or your grandparents, have a nativity set you wish to give with a friend, and an article was published in Italy with a
away, for whatever reason, you can donate it to us, and we funny title: Issam Azouri offers his Christmas Exhibition to the
will give what we can to charities we support. Pope and asks for a barrel in return!
Two months later, I hadn’t received any answer and the
season was over. I officially closed the exhibition on the
Facebook page and asked everyone to quietly pray for the
barrel to be with us next season.
What happened afterwards was beyond words and more
like a miracle. A miracle is a set of coincidences which cannot
be understood logically.
Just imagine that I got another UN consultancy in Rome
from August to December 2017.
rd
On 3 December 2013, the Christmas Exhibition was born: a On my first day in Rome, I received a WhatsApp message:
modest page on Facebook adorned with our own collection “Your wish has been granted. Pope Francis has accepted to
and our friends’ sets. Soon enough, the small initiative display the barrel at your exhibition on 17 December 2017.”
th
became a real passion (that’s how Jesus works by the way). The sender was the ambassador Albert Samaha, the Chargé
The first season was a tremendous success with one TV d’affaires at the Holy See, a person I had never met. I believe,
interview and one newspaper article. as he does, that what happened was a miracle as if “someone
The small project has continued to grow. The more darkness was making things move.”
and hatred I encountered, the more I was determined to My presence in Rome was indeed crucial as many discussions,
show more nativity sets. contacts and decisions were needed. Nothing would have
I had started alone until God sent me some friends: a real been solved the same way things got sorted out.
dedicated team of friends from Lebanon, Canada and the As planned, on 17th December 2017, we inaugurated our
US, which meant I was getting pictures of nativity sets from first Christmas nativities exhibition with the unique blessing
all over the world and from all time zones. of His Holiness and our personal collection of 120 nativity
It’s true my Facebook page is populated by some 2735 sets. As you see, it was easy.
friends, but I do believe I have more than 8000 because In 2018, we promise another surprise and we invite you all to
some people keep on liking pictures without liking or like and follow our Christmas Exhibition page on Facebook
following the page itself. so you can be the first to know what will happen there and
In July 2016, I made my first pilgrimage to the valley of the keep Jesus in the heart of your life all year long.
Saints in Qannoubin. My old friend I hadn’t met for 18 years, Issam Jamil Azouri
the hermit Youhanna Khawand, told me four words, “Imshi A nativity set collector
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Nous du Collège - N 288 - Mars 2018