On the holy night of Christmas in 1223, the quiet valley of Greccio became another Bethlehem. Francis of Assisi, with burning love for the Lord made flesh, desired to “make memory of that Child born in Bethlehem”, to see with his own eyes the humility of God lying in a manger, to make present again the mystery of God becoming man.
In a cave lit by torches and filled with song, Francis placed before the people a manger with hay, an ox and a donkey. There were no statues or decorations. He wanted everyone to feel the poverty and simplicity of that first Christmas night. It was an act of faith and of deep tenderness – a desire to make the invisible visible, to render present again the astonishing humility of God.
Upon the manger, he placed a portable altar for the Eucharist. There, the Child of Bethlehem was again laid before the people. There, the mystery of the Incarnation and the mystery of the Eucharist met. Through this holy night, Greccio became a new Bethlehem: heaven bent low, and God’s peace spread among those who came in faith and wonder.
The presence of the ox and the donkey, simple yet profound, holds a deep symbolic meaning. Though absent from the Gospel accounts, they appear in the prophecy of Isaiah: “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not understand” (Isaiah 1:3).
From the earliest centuries, the Fathers of the Church saw in these two animals a prophetic sign. The ox, a beast of burden accustomed to the yoke, represents the people of Israel, who bore the law of God. The donkey, untamed and wandering, symbolises the Gentiles, who lived outside the covenant. Both come together at the manger, united around the Child who is the Saviour of all.
In that humble cave, the ox and the donkey are not mere decorations; they announce the mystery of reconciliation. As Paul writes, Christ “is our peace, who has made the two one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14). Before the manger, the walls that divide peoples, faiths, and hearts begin to crumble. Francis, who in 1219 had crossed battlelines to greet the Sultan with the peace of Christ, must have seen in these animals a living symbol of that same peace – a peace that unites Jew and Gentile, believer and unbeliever, reason and passion, earth and heaven.
The ox and donkey also speak of us. Before God’s mystery, we are often like them – slow to understand, stubborn, bound by instinct or routine. Yet in the presence of the Child, even the dull and unknowing awaken. Their eyes are opened; they recognise their Master. Thus, the manger at Greccio is not only a symbol of poverty but of illumination.
As Francis sang the Gospel that night – his voice trembling with tenderness, his tongue lingering on the sweetness of Jesus’ name – those who listened felt their hearts awaken. Thomas of Celano tells us that one of the faithful saw a child in the manger awakened from a “deep sleep” at the touch of the saint, adding “Thus Jesus was born again in the hearts of many who had forgotten Him.”
This is the miracle of Greccio. It is also the miracle of every Christmas.
Brothers and sisters, this Christmas, let the manger be our altar; let the Child be born in our hearts. Let the ox and the donkey – symbols of our blindness and hardness – recognise their Lord and bow before Him. Let us rediscover the tenderness of God who became small for our sake, for it is only by kneeling beside that humble manger that we find our peace, our joy, and our God.
From left to right Back row: Friar Francisco Basnayake, Friar Gerard Victor, Friar Kenny Anthonysamy Front row: Friar Jorgerson Japar, Friar Marvin Voo, Friar Vernon Chua
Named after Greccio in Italy’s Rieti Valley, Greccio Friary is a formation community that lives the Gospel daily through fraternity, prayer, work and study in simplicity. The friary stands within the grounds of the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus school in Upper Bukit Timah.
Our Greccio community is made up of six friars – Francisco Jude, Gerard Victor, Kenny Anthonysamy, Vernon Chua, Jorgerson Japar and myself – living together as one fraternity.
As Guardian, Friar Francisco cares for both the physical and spiritual well-being of the community. He presides at daily Mass in the chapel and used to work with the Archdiocesan Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants & Itinerant People (ACMI). He now works with the Prison Ministry.
Friar Gerard alternates with Friar Francisco in celebrating the daily Mass for the Franciscan brothers and IJ sisters. He also celebrates Mass in various parishes including St Joseph (Bukit Timah), St Anthony, and St Mary of the Angels, and gives spiritual direction.
Friar Kenny, a lay friar, is the heart of our community. Jovial and caring, he looks after the maintenance of the friary. He brings joy through his humour and is always ready to listen and support the fraternity in many ways.
Another lay friar, Friar Vernon, serves as the director for the post-novitiate. He is also known as the “Gardener Friar” because he cares deeply for creation and takes loving care of the friary’s beautiful gardens. Living St Francis’ exhortation to love “Sicut Mater” (like a mother), he also prepares meals especially lunch for the friars returning from studies or ministry.
Friar Jorgerson is in his second year of philosophy studies at St Francis Xavier Major Seminary. In addition to his classes, he participates in our in-house Franciscan formation programme, speech classes, and the weekly St Anthony Devotion at the Church of St Mary of the Angels. He also assists with the media ministry.
Friar Marvin made his solemn profession a year ago and is now completing his second year of theology at the seminary. On weekends, he travels to Malaysia for his ministry with the Bahasa Malaysia community at St Joseph Church, Plentong in Johor Bahru. There, he serves through the choir, gives formation sessions, participates in the Basic Ecclesial Community, conduct retreats, and accompanies the youth ministry.
Minister General Massimo Fusarelli, in his letter after the Lay Brothers’ Gathering, described fraternity as a “spiritual ecosystem” where lay and ordained friars live together in complementarity, each bringing their own gift to the community.
Life at Greccio reflects a “spiritual ecosystem” where each vocation has intrinsic value rooted in being rather than function, echoing today’s call to interconnectedness.
The Greccio Friary friars nurture their fraternity through monthly Chapters or Recollections, beginning with reflection on “We Are All Brothers”, deepening their communion and renewing their Franciscan commitment.
I write this while on a pilgrimage of Franciscan Italy. We are a group of 39, but we have a common desire of our hearts – to grow in intimacy with the Lord and be courageous in seeking God’s will for us. Although I have visited many of these shrines and hermitages multiple times, they are always fresh for me because I keep growing and evolving. However, the fundamental call remains the same – to know that I belong to God and to love him as I am, with my whole self.
The weeks before the pilgrimage were filled with back to back meetings beginning with our Custody Chapter in early September, followed in October by the JPIC Asian Network for Peace and Integral Ecology in Manila and the Secular Franciscans (OFS) Asia-Oceania Congress in Kota Kinabalu.
Our Chapter allowed our brothers to connect in person and share life, ideas and possibilities. This helped in shaping the resolutions and recommendations for the Custody for the three-year term beginning January 2026.
Some significant matters discussed were:
the building of a retreat space in Kota Kinabalu;
taking on Fraternitas (Franciscan Young Adults) as a Custody corporate ministry;
forming a Welfare Committee to look after the health and insurance needs of the friars;
taking ownership of Franciscan Evangelisation (especially through St Anthony Devotion, Liturgy of the Word, Animal Blessing, Transitus celebrations);
reviewing contracts between dioceses and the Order, especially concerning parish ministries; and
strengthening our fraternal presence, as exhorted by our Minister General, with the option to suspend a presence, should the need arise.
An essential aspect of Franciscan life and mission is Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC). Pope Francis understood this wonderfully and his encyclicals Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti addressed urgent issues concerning integral ecology and universal brotherhood. Among the topics discussed at the JPIC Asian Network meeting were promoting peace in areas like Myanmar, sharing resources regarding integral ecology, and using social media to advocate for the dignity of every human person.
The Secular Franciscans (OFS) congress was also a time of discernment, with formation and accompaniment emerging as priority among the resolutions, and JPIC and YouFra (Franciscan Youths) issues taking centre stage.
Being on this pilgrimage, seeing how many are thirsting for God and connecting to the spirituality of Francis, my dreams and hopes for the Custody are for the friars to ground themselves in the God of Life so that whatever we do, we do for God, with God, and in God. This will necessitate ongoing formation of both friars and communities so we can be life-giving channels of peace to all, especially those in dire need of connection and wholeness.
This is the shalom-peace that I wish for all of you, our readers, benefactors and friends, as you celebrate the graced season of Advent and the great feast of Christmas. May the Christ who did not disdain to be born in the messiness of the manger give us the enduring hope that he always abides with us, despite our broken and chaotic lives.
Finally, I will be handing over the role of Development and Communications Director to Friar Mike D’Cruz in the new year. I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all of you for your amazing support all these years and the team, especially Ms Karen Goh and Mr Hilary Hoe for their expert advice and super hard work! My gratitude to my brothers for so readily saying yes to contributing stories and a piece of themselves.
Have a blessed 2026 and may the Lord give you peace!
If the Custody Assembly in July was the breath before the plunge, then our Custody Chapter, held from 1 to 5 September 2025 in Singapore, was the deep dive – a moment when prayer turned into purpose, reflection into resolution, and fraternity into forward movement. Over those five days, 33 friars of the Custody of St Anthony (Malaysia–Singapore–Brunei) gathered once again, this time to discern not merely what God has been doing among us, but what He calls us to become.
We began each day as Franciscans must with the rhythm of prayer. Lauds, Eucharist, and Vespers held the days together like the golden thread that binds a tapestry. Around these sacred hours, our discussions, discernments, and decisions unfolded.
A significant portion of our time was devoted to group dynamics and reflection on the quality of our fraternal life. We revisited questions raised in July: What nourishes our brotherhood? What strains it? How might we live more faithfully the simplicity, humility, and mutual care that St Francis envisioned?
We spoke from lived experience, sharing the everyday realities of running parishes in Malaysia and Singapore – the joys of serving people, the exhaustion of administrative duties, and the delicate balancing act between ministry and fraternal life. In the process, we recognised that our collective vitality depends not only on doing more, but also on discerning what must be pruned with care, and what perhaps must be cut away altogether, so that new life might emerge.
Presiding over the Chapter was Brother Ferdinand van der Reijken, our Visitator General from the Netherlands, whose calm wisdom and quiet attentiveness created space for truth to surface. In his opening address, he reminded us that discernment is not a race to conclusions, but a pilgrimage of listening – to God, to one another, and to the signs of the times.
Under his guidance, the Custody Chapter proceeded to elect new leadership. The announcement of candidates for Custos marked a solemn moment of communal trust. Ballots followed for the Vicar and Custody Council members, all carried out in prayerful transparency. When the new leadership team was confirmed, a deep silence of peace settled over the room. It was the sound of brothers entrusting one another anew to the grace of God’s guidance.
Guided once again by our facilitator, Aaron Maniam, we undertook a patient and honest exploration of the Custody’s strengths and challenges, identifying the opportunities and obstacles that might shape the next three years. Out of these conversations came resolutions and recommendations that are living signposts for a fraternity on the move.
Two of the most significant were:
A call to strengthen our fraternal presence in Malaysia and Singapore, including courageous discernment of whether to suspend or close certain houses, or to invite friars from other entities for renewed vitality.
A shared commitment for the Custody to deepen its ownership of the Franciscan charism – through devotions to St Anthony, the Blessing of Animals, and the Liturgy of the Word, seen not as mere traditions but as evangelising encounters that embody our identity.
These discussions were both administrative and theological as for Franciscans, governance is an act of fraternity, leadership a form of service, and structure a vessel for grace.
As our facilitator Aaron reminded us in the closing session, “The Custody Chapter’s true fruit lies not in documents, but in decisions made anew every morning.” He then invited each friar to reflect on two deceptively simple questions:
What is one thing I have learned during this Chapter that I will put into practice in the coming months?
What is one personal commitment I make to build on this moment in our Chapter’s history, and to help our fraternity manage its polarities in the best possible way?
It was a fitting close – for no Chapter is truly complete until its insights are embodied in life. Around the room, heads bowed and pens hovered. Some friars wrote quickly; others lingered in quiet thought. What united us was the shared awareness that we stood at another threshold – invited to translate vision into vitality, policy into presence, and fraternity into flesh.
As the friars returned to their friaries and ministries, there was a sense that something had shifted. The Chapter had reawakened a shared memory of who we are called to be – brothers to one another, and instruments of hope to a world in pain.
In the words of St Francis, “Let us begin again, for up to now we have done little.” That ancient invitation feels as fresh today as it did eight centuries ago. The world has changed beyond measure, yet the call remains the same: to live the Gospel, simply and joyfully, together.
For the Custody of St Anthony, the next three years will undoubtedly bring new challenges – changing demographics, shifting ministries, the ever-present tension between prayer and action. May God, who began this good work among us, bring it to fulfilment – in the laughter shared at table, in the silence of prayer, in the hands that bless, and in the hearts that continue to hope.
