But consider, by contrast, those rare families where the opposite of all this is true; where there is the peace of a recollected life of which the foundations are laid in constant devotion to our Lord.  There you will find the nearest possible reproduction of the life of the Holy Family in Nazareth.  Because the life of the family is a life of prayer, there will you find Jesus in the midst of it.  There you will find Mary and Joseph associated with its life of intercession.  In such a family the expression of a religious thought will never be felt as a discord.  The talk may quite naturally at any moment turn on spiritual things.  There are families in which one feels that one must make a careful preparation for the introduction of a spiritual allusion:  one does it with a sense of danger, much as one might sail through a channel strewn with mines.  There are other families in which one has no hesitation in speaking of prayer, of sacraments, of spiritual actions, as things with which all are familiar in practice, and are as natural as food and drink.  In this atmosphere it produces no smile to say, “I am going to slip into the Church and make my meditation”; or, “I shall be a little late to-night as I am making my confession on my way home.”  Religion in such a circle has not incurred contempt through familiarity:  it still remains a great adventure, the very greatest of all indeed; but it is an adventure in the open, full of joy and gladness.

The Holy Family was a family that worked hard.  It is no doubt true that our Lord learned his foster-father’s trade, so that those who knew him later on, or heard His preaching, asked, “Is not this the carpenter?” But the Holy Family was a radiant centre of joy and peace because Jesus was in the midst of it.  Where Jesus dwells there is the effect of his indwelling in the spiritual gladness that results.  Mary was never too busy for her religious duties nor Joseph too tired with his week’s work to get up on the Sabbath for whatever services in honour of God the Synagogue offered.  They were perhaps conscious as the Child “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” of a spiritual influence that flowed from Him, and sweetened and lightened the life of the home.  They were not conscious that in His Person God was in the midst of them; but that is what we can (if we will) be conscious of.  We are heirs of the Incarnation, and God is in the midst of us; and especially does Jesus wish to dwell, as He dwelt in Nazareth, in the midst of the family.  He wishes to make every household a Holy Family.  He is in the midst of it in uninterrupted communion with the soul of the baptised child; and the father and mother, understanding that their highest duty and greatest privilege is to watch and foster the spiritual unfolding of the child’s life in such wise that Jesus may never depart from union with it, become as Joseph and Mary in their ministry to it.  There is nothing more heavenly than such a charge; there is nothing more beautiful than such a family life.