Une Minute avec Marie
Faire connaître et aimer Marie
Devotion to Saint Joseph came rather late but it is certainly increasing nowadays. "The veil that covered the name and power of the Venerable Joseph during the early Christian ages is an extension of the silence in which he cloaked his mortal life. It is the continuation of this hidden life whose splendors were to strike the minds and hearts of the faithful with such admiration in proportion to their delay in it being revealed," Cardinal Pie (Poitiers, France, 1815-1880) explained. From now on, we must all "return to Nazareth" (Lk 2:39).
As we meditate on the mystery of the hidden life, we must understand that if Jesus spent 30 long years in Nazareth, it was not only to prepare for His public life, but above all to show us the road to follow. Jesus is for us "the way, the truth and the life" (Jn 14:6) from the first moment of His conception, and not only during the three years of his missionary life.
By remaining under the authority of Joseph and Mary in this way, our Lord invites us to do the same: it is in Nazareth, at the school of Jesus' parents, that the seed of divine life received at baptism can grow, mature, and blossom, in order to bear all the fruits that God has the right to expect from it. We must all be very eager to grow, like Jesus and with Him, "in wisdom, in stature and in grace, under the eyes of God and of men" (Lk 2:52), at the school of the Holy Family.