Modern biblical scholars have cast doubts on the traditional reading of this next episode from the Christmas story, illustrated in a new work from the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection. Those of us who grew up hearing the King James Version of the Nativity narrative in the second chapter of Luke 2 can recite by heart the passage about the baby being born in a manger "because there was no room for them in the inn," imagining the Holy Family finding NO VACANCY signs at Bethlehem hostelries. Contemporary interpreters now say it was "the guest room" that was, probably, already occupied in the house where Mary and Joseph would have been staying with relatives. No matter. I am still drawn to traditional images of the event like this week's simple but poignant small format linocut print by Austrian-American Graphic Artist Helen Siegl, showing Joseph with his arm around a visibly pregnant Mary being directed to the stable by an inn-keeper, who keeps the lower part of his door protectively bolted. For me, this was the first of many instances of rejection in the life of the Word-Made-Flesh who "came unto this own, and his own received him not (John 1:11, KJV)." This new print joins others on Christmas themes in the gallery of the Helen Siegl profile page in the Sacred Artists section. (John Kohan)