 
Point I.—At Nazareth We should like to penetrate into those remaining six months, which Mary and Joseph spent together, before the birth of the Holy Child. Scripture is silent about them, but it is not difficult for a sanctified imagination to picture something of what was taking place. Perhaps the thought of the Altar of Repose on Maundy Thursday will bring the realities home to us better than anything else could. Though He is hidden from our sight, all know that He is there. Angels are in constant adoration, and the faithful do not forget Him. All try to get near and to hold silent communion with Him; and all are expecting the great day when He will rise again and show Himself to them. And He is spending the time in giving His blessing and His grace to all who, by faith, seek Him. The house at Nazareth was in very deed God's Sanctuary, containing the Altar of Repose, where the Saviour of the world was resting. Angels were in constant adoration before their King. The faithful consisted of Mary and Joseph, whose thought and conversation could be about nothing else but the Child Who was coming into the world. And who shall measure the graces and blessings, which that Child was showering upon Mary and her faithful spouse, during those months of waiting and prayer and holy converse, while they planned and arranged with such care and minuteness, as parents are wont to do, every detail connected with the birth of the firstborn? But man proposes and God disposes. God, Who "ordereth all things sweetly," (Wisdom viii. 1), was stirring up the whole civilised world so that the Scripture might be fulfilled which said: "And thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, ... out of thee shall He come forth to me, that is to be the Ruler in Israel; and His going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity." (Micheas v. 2.) It was in Bethlehem—not at Nazareth, that the Child was to be born. And to effect this, "in those days there went out a decree from CÆsar Augustus, that the whole world should be enrolled.... And all went to be enrolled, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went ... out of the city of Nazareth ... to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem (because he was of the house and family of David), to be enrolled with Mary his espoused wife." (St Luke ii. 1-5.) What a trial this order must have been to Mary! To leave home, to forego all her plans, to take a long journey, to interrupt her days of solitude and calm and peace—and all at the bidding of a heathen Emperor. But Mary knew how to take her trials. Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. "Be it done to me according to Thy word." For her there were no second causes. It was ever God Who was ordering "all things sweetly" for her, and she had nothing to say but "Ecce ancilla—fiat." She waited for nothing but God's will. And as He arranged it, she could spend her time of waiting just as well on the public highway to Bethlehem as in the seclusion of Nazareth. Oh, my Mother, teach me this lesson too: if I could only learn it, how different my life would be! My life—every detail of it—is in God's Hands. He is "ordering it sweetly," and I complain! How little is my faith! When my faith is great enough, I shall take all things, as sweetly as God orders them, even though they may upset my most cherished plans. Point II.—On the Way to Bethlehem And so, in obedience to the command, Mary and Joseph leave the calm and quiet and solitude of their little home, and go to face poverty and difficulties and the unknown. But Jesus is with them, and this makes them independent of exterior circumstances—their calm and quiet are unbroken, and they can find solitude even in the busy thoroughfares. Mary is communing with her Child, and is peaceful with the peace He gives. Joy, too, fills her heart as she thinks how fast the time is approaching when she will see His face. Oh, how I should love to be allowed to go with them on this journey! At my request, Mary readily consents to take me as her servant, and I am so glad to be in that blessed company that I forego everything else—I know that the Family I have come to live with is poor, and I am determined not to ask them to get any special things for me. The table has the barest necessities—perhaps hardly these, for true poverty consists in the want of necessities; but it is the company that I care about, and nothing else matters. I can see that all sorts of inconveniences and privations and hardships will be mine, but I cannot be an exception in that Family; and somehow, now that I am so close to the Blessed Mother, I do not wish to be. My great desire is to be like her, and to share all with her and her Son. At Bethlehem Joseph begins his weary and anxious search for a lodging; but all in vain—no one wants the Holy Family. How Joseph suffers at each refusal—not for himself but for Mary! Mary is too much taken up with her joy to heed the suffering. And the servant—does she regret that she is not in one of the big hotels, as she might have been, or does she turn with joy to follow the Holy Family to the cave, saying: With Jesus and Mary I have all I want, and I love every hardship and every Oh, my Mother, I thank thee for allowing me to be thy servant; I thank thee for bringing me into such close contact with thy Son; I thank thee for every privation, every difficulty, every hardship, every inconvenience, every crossing of my own will which has come to me, because I chose to be in thy company and in that of thy Son. Help me to persevere bravely, thinking all worth while for the sake of the company.
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