LIFE AT NAZARETH
3. Work at Nazareth.
Work, real work, labor in its strict meaning, then, could not be wanting at Nazareth. Labor is not only the peaceful occupation and good use of time, but is above all a laborious and irksome reality, a something hard and fatiguing, something demanding effort, sweat, toil and hardship. Such was the work in Nazareth. Little poetical or idyllic. It was not work done merely to kill time, to while it away. No, it was a struggle for existence, it was a work for life, a striving after the daily bread. They lived on the fruit of their labors for they were humble toilers and bread-winners.
See St. Joseph and the Child busy at their monotonous daily tasks, immersed in the heavy and unimaginative routine of a village carpentry shop. Because that is indeed what it was, a rustic carpentry shop where only rough, common, ordinary objects were made. Look at those hands gnarled and calloused by daily labor -- the same divine hands that shaped the world. And so too with Our Blessed Lady. Also She after finishing the household work, the washing, the sweeping, and the scrubbing, would go to the spindle and to gain a few coins would do Her spinning. Think over it, meditate on this mystery. The Queen of Heaven working for wages! She does not bust Herself on intricate embroidery nor do Her fine delicate fingers weave gold and silk thread. Her work is the unartistic, rough, unimaginative, monotonous humble work of the poor.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
3. Work at Nazareth.
Work, real work, labor in its strict meaning, then, could not be wanting at Nazareth. Labor is not only the peaceful occupation and good use of time, but is above all a laborious and irksome reality, a something hard and fatiguing, something demanding effort, sweat, toil and hardship. Such was the work in Nazareth. Little poetical or idyllic. It was not work done merely to kill time, to while it away. No, it was a struggle for existence, it was a work for life, a striving after the daily bread. They lived on the fruit of their labors for they were humble toilers and bread-winners.
See St. Joseph and the Child busy at their monotonous daily tasks, immersed in the heavy and unimaginative routine of a village carpentry shop. Because that is indeed what it was, a rustic carpentry shop where only rough, common, ordinary objects were made. Look at those hands gnarled and calloused by daily labor -- the same divine hands that shaped the world. And so too with Our Blessed Lady. Also She after finishing the household work, the washing, the sweeping, and the scrubbing, would go to the spindle and to gain a few coins would do Her spinning. Think over it, meditate on this mystery. The Queen of Heaven working for wages! She does not bust Herself on intricate embroidery nor do Her fine delicate fingers weave gold and silk thread. Her work is the unartistic, rough, unimaginative, monotonous humble work of the poor.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
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