Bambinelli Sunday

Have you ever heard of Bambinelli Sunday?

Bambinelli (Baby Jesus) Sunday in Italy takes place on the third Sunday of Advent. Families bring the Baby Jesus figurine from their Nativity sets to church to have them blessed in preparation for Christmas. Pope St. Paul VI even made it a custom for this event to take place in the Vatican. Pilgrims can have their Baby Jesus statue blessed by the pope himself!

If you've never seen this custom, check in with your priest to see if it is something that can be done at your parish during Advent! 

While doing a little more research into Bambinelli Sunday, I came across the beautiful blessing shared by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008. You can read the whole address on the Vatican website here, or we included just the prayer on this coloring page:

You can print either of these coloring pages to share with your children this Advent:

Click here for the coloring page with a description of Bambinelli Sunday:

And click here for the coloring page with the prayer from Pope Benedict included:

And you can read more about Bambinelli Sunday and other Advent traditions in All about Advent & Christmas: Sharing the Seasons of Hope & Wonder with Children. These coloring pages were made in cooperation with Shari Van Vranken of Catholic Paper Goods using artwork from our new book!

You can find it at The St. Paul Center here or on Amazon here. It's also available as an ebook in both places if that's more your style! 

And you can find all of the free resources linked in this post: