While on pilgrimage to Nazareth, Pope Paul VI reflected, “Nazareth is a kind of school.… How I would like to return to my childhood and attend the simple yet profound school that is Nazareth!” He went on to explain that there are three key lessons to learn by reflecting on Christ’s childhood in Nazareth.

• First, he said we learn from its silence: “We need this wonderful state of mind,” he said, to combat the pressures and noise of the world.

• Second, he said that Nazareth serves as “a model of what the family should be … a community of love and sharing, beautiful for the problems it poses and the rewards it brings, in sum, the perfect setting for rearing children—and for this there is no substitute.”

• Finally, he said, “[I]n Nazareth, the home of a craftsman’s son, we learn about work and the discipline it entails.”

It is no surprise that Pope Paul VI mentions silence as his first reflection on the life of the Holy Family at Nazareth, for it is in silence that we are trained in prayer. It is also in interior silence that we contemplate and have communion with God. A “silent” interior life is one free of distraction: it is a life of constancy. The “noise” of the world disrupts and distracts us.

Archbishop Chaput once said, “We need to unplug a little from the network of noise that surrounds us. We need to create the room for a silence that we can fill with conversation—conversation with each other and with God.”

As Pope Paul VI said,

The silence of Nazareth should teach us how to meditate in peace and quiet, to reflect on the deeply spiritual, and to be open to the voice of God’s inner wisdom and the counsel of his true teachers. Nazareth can teach us the value of study and preparation, of meditation, of a well-ordered personal spiritual life, and of silent prayer that is known only to God.

Pope Paul VI called Nazareth the “model of what the family should be.” He went on to say that building a “community of love and sharing” is crucial to teaching children the virtues. It is also necessary to form within them the raw material for selfless, loving relationships with God and with their future spouse and children.

Mary and Joseph educated Jesus, and Joseph taught Him to work as a carpenter. We live in a very different time, and it is uncommon that both parents are able to teach their children by working with them throughout each day. These lessons about hard work and discipline are just as important and can be learned when parents simply make the effort to allow their children to help them in their daily tasks at home. By helping their parents, children learn the virtues of diligence, self-discipline, and responsibility. They also learn the value of work.

In addition to these other virtues, children learn obedience. Obedience to the parents’ will is a training exercise for obedience to the will of the Father. As Saint Luke tells us, after the finding of the Child Jesus in the temple, even Jesus himself “was obedient to them” and “increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man” (Lk. 2:51–52). Obedience fosters the virtue of humility, which is the foundation of all virtues, and which, with love, forms the core of holiness.

The word discipline comes from the Latin word disciplina, which means instruction or knowledge, which comes from the word for “disciple.” God gives parents the duty to discipline their children.

In Pope Paul VI’s reflections on Nazareth, he discussed silence, the family as a community of love and sharing, and discipline. What ties these distinctive features of the Holy Family together is prayer. Prayer is rooted in interior silence; it is the core of a community of love and sharing, and it gives rise to discipline. If we have a relationship with God, we pray. It is that simple. In modeling our families after the Holy Family, prayer must be the center of our lives and our greatest priority. If we wish to be holy families, we must pray. Holiness is our greatest weapon against the influences of the world and it is our most persuasive argument for sharing our Christian faith.