Lessons from Nazareth

I'm not going to quote Pope Paul VI directly here, but in today's Office of Readings he mentions three things we should learn from Nazareth. I'm paraphrasing, and maybe referring to others (certainly there's a Matthew Kelly reference here):

1. God speaks many lessons to us and gives us growth and maturity in the school of silence, which we cannot receive if we do not come away from the clamoring cacaphony of the world. This is even more true today than it was in the 1960s and '70s when Paul was our holy father. No matter the size of our domestic church, it is too easy for us to become distracted by the noise of daily life. But in that life's rhythm, if we are careful to carve out time for it, there is a quiet transformation that can take place in the midst of the routine, a daily living in love that undergirds and gives context and new meaning to all of it. This will not happen without our conscious participation, if we fail to actively listen for the voice of the Father.
2. Family is central to God's plan for each of us.
3. Work is valuable, not for its own sake but for its effect on us and in context with the first two lessons. It is not a mere drudgery that we cannot avoid, but a gift God gives us.