A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew(2:13-15,19-23)
When the magi had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, "Out of Egypt I called my son."
When Herod had died, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” He rose, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go back there. And because he had been warned in a dream, he departed for the region of Galilee. He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, "He shall be called a Nazorean."
A reading from an address by Pope St. Paul VI
The home of Nazareth is the school where we begin to understand the life of Jesus — the school of the Gospel. The first lesson we learn here is to look, to listen, to meditate and penetrate the meaning — at once so deep and so mysterious — of this very simple, very humble and very beautiful manifestation of the Son of God. Perhaps we learn, even imperceptibly, the lesson of imitation. Here we learn the method which will permit us to understand who Christ is. Here everything is eloquent, all has a meaning.
Here, in this school, one learns why it is necessary to have a spiritual rule of life, if one wishes to follow the teaching of the Gospel and become a disciple of Christ. How gladly would I become a child again, and go to school once more in this humble and sublime school of Nazareth: close to Mary, I wish I could make a fresh start at learning the true science of life and the higher wisdom of divine truths. But I am only a passing pilgrim. I must renounce this desire to pursue in this home my still incomplete education in the understanding of the Gospel. I will not go on my way however without having gathered — hurriedly, it is true, and as if wanting to escape notice — some brief lessons from Nazareth.
First, then, a lesson of silence. May esteem for silence, that admirable and indispensable condition of mind, revive in us, besieged as we are by so many uplifted voices, the general noise and uproar, in our seething and over-sensitised modern life. May the silence of Nazareth teach us recollection, inwardness, the disposition to listen to good inspirations and the teachings of true masters. May it teach us the need for and the value of preparation, of study, of meditation, of personal inner life, of the prayer which God alone sees in secret.
Next, there is a lesson on family life. May Nazareth teach us what family life is, its communion of love, its austere and simple beauty, and its sacredand inviolable character. Let us learn from Nazareth that the formation received at home is gentle and irreplaceable. Let us learn the prime importance of the role of the family in the social order.
Finally, there is a lesson of work. Nazareth, home of the ‘Carpenter’s Son’, in you I would choose to understand and proclaim the severe and redeeming law of human work; here I would restore the awareness of the nobility of work; and reaffirm that work cannot be an end in itself, but that its freedom and its excellence derive, over and above its economic worth, from the value of those for whose sake it is undertaken. And here at Nazareth, to conclude, I want to greet all the workers of the world, holding up to them their great pattern, their brother who is God. He is the prophet of all their just causes, Christ our Lord.
Musical Selection (Benedictines of Mary)
O Child of beauty rare!
O Mother chaste and fair!
How joyful they both seem!
She by her infant blest,
He by His conscious rest
On the Heart of His Queen.
What joy that sight would bear
To him who sees them there
Fulfilling all desire,
With pure and peaceful eye
Like Joseph standing by,
Warmed by two Hearts’ fire.
O may that blessed sight
Become our souls’ delight,
And melt our hearts of stone.
Grant us thy unity
That we may follow thee,
Never to die alone.
Guide us in thy loving ways,
That through our length of days
Our souls remain with thee;
Then when our life is o’er
We live forevermore
In thy sweet company.
Prayer
O God,
you cradle us at the beginning of life
and embrace us at our journey’s end,
for you love us as your own.
Bind our families together
and deepen our faith,
that, like the Holy Family of Nazareth,
we may grow in wisdom,
obedient to your word. Amen.(Holy Family; Roman Missal)