Feast of the Holy Family: Learning to Love, Pray and Live in the School of Nazareth

By Deacon Keith Fournier
1/1/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

The house of Nazareth is a school of prayer where we learn to listen, to meditate, to penetrate the deepest meaning of the manifestation of the Son of God, drawing our example from Mary, Joseph and Jesus

Jesus spent 30 of his 33 earthly years in Nazareth. Some spiritual writers have called these the 'hidden years', because there is so little written about them in the Gospel narratives. However, they reveal the holiness of ordinary life and show us how it becomes extraordinary for those baptized into Christ. From antiquity the Christian family has rightly been called a domestic church. In our own Christian family we can learn the way of selfless love in the School of Nazareth.

The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

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CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - During the Octave (eight days) of Christmas we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. The significance of the Feast unfolds when we come to understand the deeper truths it reveals. It teaches us about Jesus, Mary, and Joseph- and about each one of us and our own families. Through our Baptism, we are invited to live our lives in Christ by living them in the Church - which is the Risen Body of Christ. The Church is the place where we learn, as the Apostle Paul reminded the Colossian Christians, to "put on love, that is, the bond of perfection". (Col. 3:14)

The Gospel of the Liturgy is taken from the presentation of Jesus in the temple account in St. Luke and the beautiful canticle of Zechariah. (Luke 2:22-40) However, upon leaving the temple to return to Nazareth, we read these words: "When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him."

In a beautiful address on December 28, 2011, at his Wednesday audience, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the life of the Holy Family in Nazareth. Here is a short excerpt: "The house of Nazareth is a school of prayer where we learn to listen, to meditate, to penetrate the deepest meaning of the manifestation of the Son of God, drawing our example from Mary, Joseph and Jesus.

"The Holy Family is an icon of the domestic Church, which is called to pray together. The family is the first school of prayer where, from their infancy, children learn to perceive God thanks to the teaching and example of their parents. An authentically Christian education cannot neglect the experience of prayer. If we do not learn to pray in the family, it will be difficult to fill this gap later. I would, then, like to invite people to rediscover the beauty of praying together as a family, following the school of the Holy Family of Nazareth".

The Christian family is the first cell of the whole Church. It is the place where we begin the journey toward holiness and become more fully human. The Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, became one of us. He was born into a human family. That was neither accidental nor incidental. There, in what the late Pope Paul VI called the "School of Nazareth", we can learn the way of love. The late Pope's reflection called "The Example of Nazareth" is in the Office of Readings for the Liturgy of the Hours (the breviary) for the Feast of the Holy family.

Every moment of his time among us Jesus was saving the world, re-creating it from within. To use a word from the early Church Father and Bishop St. Ireneaus, he was "recapitulating" the entire human experience. There, in the holy habitation of Nazareth, He forever transformed family life. Now, He teaches us how to live in His presence, if we will enroll in the "School of Nazareth".

From antiquity the Christian family has rightly been called a "domestic church." In our life within the Christian family Jesus Christ is truly present. However, we need the eyes to see Him at work, the ears to hear His instruction and the hearts to make a place for Him to dwell. In our family we can learn the way of selfless love by enrolling in the School of Nazareth.

Jesus spent 30 of his 33 earthly years in Nazareth. Some spiritual writers have called these the "hidden years", because there is so little written about them in the Gospel narratives. However, they reveal the holiness of ordinary life and show us how it becomes extraordinary for those baptized into Christ.

Every moment of his time among us Jesus was saving, redeeming, and re-creating the world. From his conception, throughout His saving life, death and Resurrection, the One whom scripture calls the "New Adam" was making all things new. The Fathers of the last great Council of the Church put it this way:

"The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. .He Who is "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15), is Himself the perfect man.

"To the sons of Adam He restores the divine likeness which had been disfigured from the first sin onward. Since human nature as He assumed it was not annulled, by that very fact it has been raised up to a divine dignity in our respect too. For by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man. He worked with human hands, He thought with a human mind, acted by human choice and loved with a human heart. Born of the Virgin Mary, He has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin" (Gaudium et Spes # 22) ...

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1 - 7 of 7 Comments

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1 year ago
The Holy Family. This is a wonderful model and example for all of mankind. It is wonderful to understand that when God created Adam and Eve, he created family. It has taken me a long time to understand that the Family is at the foundation of creation. Until recently I finally understand how the Holy Trinity and the Holy Family are one in Heaven via family. It is so remarkable and wonderful. I wish that the faithful were taught from the pulpit more about the Holy Family and why it is important for us to understand the importance of its role as a fulfillment of the Holy Sacrament of Marriage. Thank you for this informative article.
Bill Sr.
1 year ago
What was life like for Jesus within the Holy Family?
. Some say he went off to travel the world and review other lands and their culture. Others think he lived like John the Baptist in the dessert. The gospel narratives simply say he returned with Mary and Joseph to Nazareth and grew in wisdom and strength. I tend to go along with the gospels. I suppose you could wonder if it really is a point to be concerned about for any true believer yet it is puzzling.

However, since none of us were there and if we accept that the “word of God” given to us as the “Bible” we know today, inspired by God, and reveals all we need to know concerning our salvation history and the teachings of our saving Lord, then why the void?
If I can assume for a moment that I have the right to formulate an “opinion” of my own in this regard then here it is for you.

First I will make it abundantly clear that I believe that Jesus was truly incarnate, meaning “God with us” just as the scriptures tell us. And that he was also truly a “man” in all ways save “sin”. With God all things are possible so I see no contradictions in the use of these terms to describe our Lord. This amazing reality is the very reason why the Church venerates the “lord’s handmaiden” Mary, our Immaculate “mother of God”. She was designated in heaven to be the bearer on earth of God’s only “begotten Son”. His offering of pure and holy love for a humanity he held so dear that he was willing to become one of us in order to have as many of us as would recognize and accept him for his own.

Secondly, I believe that little boy of twelve which Mary found in the temple knew all along where he came from and why he was on earth. He and Mary and Joseph surely had many conversations concerning the origins of their “family life”. As soon as the child Jesus began to speak the voice of God was present in their household, was it not? What kind of conversations do you imagine took place at meal time? And would you dare speak of it (the wisdom of His words) to the neighbors? Mary and Joseph already knew they were a marked couple and needed to keep a low profile for God’s plan until our Lord was prepared to announce his presence.

The pressure to reveal God’s presence among His people building up in their tiny habitat had to be felt more by Jesus then any of them. This is why he left himself behind that day. He couldn’t wait to announce the good news to mankind, particularly the hierarchy in the temple. “Don’t you know (mother) that I must be about my fathers work?” he asks of Mary. “Yes, but not yet, you are still a child and they will just mock you or think we put you up to this. Please wait until you can stand man to man with them, then they’ll listen to you”… might have been Mary’s response to her child. This was the Fathers plan and the guiding Spirit was still overshadowing the family.

So the “Word” had to acknowledge the “flesh” and admit that though the world was in need, the Father’s plan required just what Christ’s holy mother might have suggested. The next period of Christ’s life was spent like the rest of us, learning how a boy becomes a man among men. In other words, Jesus had to experience all the feelings and emotions associated with mankind, how we’re affected by our day to day chores and the burden sin put upon man. These lessons he willingly accepted just as he did in the garden prior to his passion. You see, the God of our universe through Christ chose to experience humanity in order that humanity might experience God on earth.

If we only set aside wild imaginations or tall tales of want-a-be liberal theologians and dwell on the holy family as simply and clearly portrayed in the gospels we can understand how they must have made certain they appeared to be “normal”, yet all the while knowing they were one of a kind trusting in the Holy Spirit and doing God’s will according to His plan among and for mankind.

Truly, the Holy Family is a model for all of us. Good St. Joseph quietly protecting and providing, Mary ever watchful of her Emmanuel until “His time” was to come, and Jesus accepting His humanity in the name of our Father in heaven for all mankind.
We should allow this holy season to refresh our appreciation and love for family life by reflecting upon that humble but holy little family of Nazareth which endured the labors of common life and held the secret of man’s salvation in their hearts so long that we might have the fullness of God’s light shine upon us again and again at Christmas time.
abey
1 year ago
With the revelation of GOD through His Christ & Son, unto the gentiles ,the promise of Abraham is extended backward right to the First parents, such that their family which being whole mankind is offered life in Christ Jesus or Yeshua meaning salvation. It is a great irony as to how the Jews missed out the Messiah when he came, seems stuck in their Leavens, with the same clear & present danger exist today in the very same leavens of Man as it was with the Jews, for His coming as stated will be like a thief. Pray that it be as St. Bernard stated, the intermediate coming, of Christ which basically is the revelation of the Covenant in the fulness Prophesied by Prophet Jeremiah ,in the book of Maccabees.
SaraPalen
1 year ago
(If I only would have named one of the kids Track).the choice of name would be a good Christian name for anyone (well, maybe part Hebrew). But the more famous of the name has some quailities,of which I can relate and admire- from the love of moose, my five kids all knowing how to shoot a gun, and being able to use a triple wrapped prussic to catch one from a fall into the abyss, (If one knows anything about climbing or ropes, one understands the analogy), to the love of the unborn as a person, But I am more interested in something different, yet similar-more like a triple-wrapped Prussian-the German Shepherd of our faith and what he says and writes-(he too has mentioned something about this liturgy of the hours), what the other Church fathers have said on the treasured pages of history which today seem new and fresh. This is the kind of mountainon which my family and I need the help of a triple wrapped Prussian, being arrested from falling into the deep abysses of moral relativism-by the simplist yet most encompassing circle- not to cling to every doctrine that blows in the wind (this is more like the noose of the hang man). So, thanks for explaining the Liturgyof the Hours to us. hope you keep carrying on, for sure.Hope the beautiful prayers and the words of the saints are a big help to those who endeavor on the slopes of the thing called faith, stirring in us the grace of the Holy Spirit. And Merry Christmas to you too! (sorry to carry on with the metaphores and analogies, but seems the things of everyday life, like what's in a name, causes thoughts of the spiritual life and modern day paradoxes, Besides, it's a name that was chosen for me, if that's what you meant by interesting choice of names).
Deacon Keith Fournier
1 year ago
To SaraPalen: Interesting choice of a name... Thank you for your question. The Liturgy of the Hours is the formal prayer of the whole Church. It contains the psalms, arranged in sequence, scripture readings and an Office of Readings with WONDERFUL portions from the writings of the early fathers, saints, and church documents. It used to be called (and still is by many) "The breviary" or "the Divine Office" and was prayed by priests, deacons and all in religious life by virtue of their vocation. It is now ENCOURAGED as a base of prayer for all of the faithful. It can be prayed in its entirety or portions can be used. I strongly recommend it as a framework for daily prayer for all believers. It is a true treasure. You can order it online, buy it at most religious goods stores or find it online (for example: http://www.universalis.com/) I think actually having the set and physically reading from it during prayer daily is the best route to allow it to bear its wonderful fruit. But, then again, I am a book fan. I hope that helps. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
jh
1 year ago
Beautifully written, and edifying.
SaraPalen
1 year ago
Deacon Keith, what is this Liturgy of the Hours you keep carrying on about in many of your articles? Is that just for ordained people, or can families pray this "liturgy" also? and, if families could pray these prayers, how would they start?

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