While I’m a massive fan of Christmas, there is something about Easter that, on a spiritual level, I actually prefer. Observing this series of days—from Ash Wednesday, all the way up to Holy Week—that incorporate a sequence of spiritual practices, I find it life-giving for my faith.

With Christmas just around the corner, I’m sure all of us are seeing a lot of the nativity scene—the holy couple, tucked neatly into a triangular barn, with heads tilted toward the chubby babe Jesus, laid in a manger of hay. But did you know that how we tend to picture the nativity scene may not be totally accurate? 

This ANZAC Day, I reflect on a story that’s woven into my own family’s history. Like all families, we too carry history of personal stories and experiences of those harrowing times.