The Bethlehem Star
The Bethlehem Star is a 50-page e-magazine of historical fiction for the month of Jesus’ birth, a one-time-only publication of Scripture on Stage of Livonia, Michigan, with fictional 1st century Jewish reporters covering all the various Nativity stories from the Infancy Narratives of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, with a bunch of extra stories, sports, weather, letters to our readers, etc. to enhance the experience of immersion in the events and people of this time. It is written by John Dzwonkowski, M.A. Theology, former 9-year (college & grad school) seminarian with The Maryknoll Fathers of New York, retired Director of Religious Education for his own St. Priscilla Catholic Parish, and current Master Catechist with the Archdiocese of Detroit. John is also a Catholic playwright, having written, produced, and directed 25+ plays, primarily exploring the great variety of emotions, challenges, struggles, conflicts, and joys surrounding the ministry of Jesus, but especially the events of his birth, and then of his passion, death, and resurrection. John is also the co-founder of St. Priscilla's Movie & Drama Ministry; as well as his own theatrical venture of 30 years so far, Scripture on Stage; through which he performs live 60 and 90-minute theatrical productions of An Evening with Simon Peter, An Evening with St. Joseph, and Peter & Magdalen ...on Jesus, all for solely a Free Will Offering to various parishes throughout the Detroit Archdiocese, complete with myriad emotion-charged music, stage lighting, multiple props, and even a 14' tall Roman crucifix that is used by Peter to demonstrate how this was done by the Romans. John has also published through his Scripture on Stage a comparable fictional e-mag of 58 pages, The Jerusalem Star, supposedly published in Jerusalem of the 1st century on the Sunday evening of Jesus' resurrection. Here we again have a variety of fictional 1st century Jewish reporters covering the various events of Jesus' passion, death, and resurrection, but from their close-up point of view.
The Bethlehem Star is a 50-page e-magazine of historical fiction for the month of Jesus’ birth, a one-time-only publication of Scripture on Stage of Livonia, Michigan, with fictional 1st century Jewish reporters covering all the various Nativity stories from the Infancy Narratives of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, with a bunch of extra stories, sports, weather, letters to our readers, etc. to enhance the experience of immersion in the events and people of this time.
It is written by John Dzwonkowski, M.A. Theology, former 9-year (college & grad school) seminarian with The Maryknoll Fathers of New York, retired Director of Religious Education for his own St. Priscilla Catholic Parish, and current Master Catechist with the Archdiocese of Detroit. John is also a Catholic playwright, having written, produced, and directed 25+ plays, primarily exploring the great variety of emotions, challenges, struggles, conflicts, and joys surrounding the ministry of Jesus, but especially the events of his birth, and then of his passion, death, and resurrection.
John is also the co-founder of St. Priscilla's Movie & Drama Ministry; as well as his own theatrical venture of 30 years so far, Scripture on Stage; through which he performs live 60 and 90-minute theatrical productions of An Evening with Simon Peter, An Evening with St. Joseph, and Peter & Magdalen ...on Jesus, all for solely a Free Will Offering to various parishes throughout the Detroit Archdiocese, complete with myriad emotion-charged music, stage lighting, multiple props, and even a 14' tall Roman crucifix that is used by Peter to demonstrate how this was done by the Romans.
John has also published through his Scripture on Stage a comparable fictional e-mag of 58 pages, The Jerusalem Star, supposedly published in Jerusalem of the 1st century on the Sunday evening of Jesus' resurrection. Here we again have a variety of fictional 1st century Jewish reporters covering the various events of Jesus' passion, death, and resurrection, but from their close-up point of view.
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The Bethlehem Star
Pg. XX
Shepherds Startled
…by Nighttime Apparition!
by Rehoboam ben Midrash
“I come from VII generations of shepherds, and none
of us ever had anything happen like what happened to us last
night!”
Those were the words of Samuel ben Jehudah, son of
Isaac, of the town of Bethlehem, where he says he and his III
brothers were tending their flock on the hillsides just north of
the town when he says our God stepped out into the night, into
their lives, ...and altered the course of history.
“It was unusually cold. All of us thought that,”
Samuel starts to explain. “We had to feel bad for all those
travelers who were coming into the city looking for lodging.
Not many people come to our town, so there really aren’t a lot
of inns. But there sure seem to be a lot of us who came from
the family of David! This census that Augustus ordered is
cause for a whole lot of family reunions around here. They’re
great times, but who has that kind of space? I hope everybody
has found some place to stay inside!
Anyway, we shepherds are pretty used to the cold.
Hey, wool is half our livelihood! But, even with that, it was
still mighty cold last night. The sky was half clouded over, and
the clouds kept floating slowly by that gorgeous new star up
there.
And then, out of nowhere, it started snowing.
Now that we don’t see very often. And usually it’s a
real nuisance. But not tonight. For some reason, and
we all felt the same this time, the snow seemed soft,
real gentle, quiet, peaceful. And the air that brought it
to us was as still as a sleeping lamb.
My little brother Benjamin was warming a
bunch of good-sized rocks for us to sit on to try to
warm the inner man, but that’s kind of touch n’ go—
some are way too hot, and others are barely
warm, ...and none of them are really very soft.
Thomas, the eldest of us, was trying to
squeak out a tune or two on his flute, as much to keep
the wolves away as to calm our nerves, I think. He’s
really not that good, but he’s bigger than any of us, so
nobody wants to tell him. Anyway, his spit kept
freezing in the flute every time he’d stop for a
minute, and, when he finally tried to warm it over the
open flame, it caught fire. We all thought he got the
best sound out of it finally only when he blew into it
trying to put out the fire. Sometimes blessings are a
mixed bag, it seems.
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