Facts about the childhood and hidden life of Jesus Christ

Mary is not sleeping. She is kneeling near the cradle in Her light coloured dress and is praying, watching Jesus Who is sleeping peacefully. Jesus is the same age as I saw Him in the vision of the Magi: a Child about one year old, beautiful, rosy and fair haired. He is sleeping with His curly head sunk in the pillow and a clenched fist under His chin.

«Are You not sleeping?» Joseph asks Her in a low surprised voice. «Why not? Is Jesus not well?»

«Oh, no! He is alright. I am praying. Later I will sleep. Why have you come, Joseph?» Mary speaks, kneeling on the same spot.

Joseph speaks in a very low voice so as not to awaken the Child, but it is an excited voice. «We must go away from here at once. It must be at once. Prepare the coffer and a sack with everything You can put in them. I’ll prepare the rest, I’ll take as much as I can… We will flee at dawn. I would go even sooner but I must speak to the landlady…»

«But why this flight?»

«I will tell You later. It’s because of Jesus. An angel said to me: ‘Take the Child and His Mother and escape to Egypt.’ Don’t waste any time. I’m going to prepare what I can.»

35.3 There is no need to tell Mary not to waste time. As soon as She heard Joseph mention an angel, Jesus and flight, She understood that Her Creature was in danger and She jumped to Her feet, Her face whiter than wax, holding one hand against Her heart, completely distressed. And She began to move about, quick and agile, laying the clothes in the coffer and in a large sack which She placed on Her bed still untouched. Although She is disheartened, She does not lose Her head: She acts quickly but orderly. Now and again, when passing near the cradle, She looks at the Child Who is sleeping calmly.

«Do you need help?» Joseph asks now and again, peeping into the room through the door ajar.

«No, thank you,» replies Mary every time.

Only when Her sack is full, and it is obviously very heavy, She calls Joseph to help Her to close it and take it off the bed. But Joseph does not want any help, he prefers to do it himself, and he takes the long sack into his little room.

«Shall I also take the woollen blankets?» asks Mary.

«Take as much as You can. We will lose the rest. Do take as much as You can. Things will be useful because… because we will have to stay away for a long time, Mary!…» Joseph is very sad in saying so. And one can easily imagine how Mary feels. She folds Her blankets and Joseph’s, sighing deeply. Joseph ties the blankets with a rope and while doing so, he says: «We shall leave the quilts and the mats. Even if I take three donkeys I cannot overload them. We will have a long and uncomfortable journey, partly in the mountains and in the desert. Cover Jesus well. The nights will be cold both up in the mountains and in the desert. I have taken the gifts of the Magi because they will be very useful down there. I am going to spend all the money I have to buy two donkeys. We cannot send them back, so I will have to buy them. I’ll go now, without awaiting dawn. I know where to find them. You finish preparing everything.» And he goes out.

Mary gathers a few more things, then, after looking at Jesus, She goes out and comes back with some little dresses which appear to be still damp: perhaps they were washed the day before. She folds them, wraps them up in a cloth, and adds them to the other things. There is nothing else.

She looks around and in a corner She sees one of Jesus’ toys: a little sheep carved in wood. She picks it up sobbing, and kisses it. On the wood there are traces of Jesus’ little teeth and the ears of the little sheep are all nibbled. Mary caresses the thing without any value, a plain piece of light wood, which, however, is of great value to Her, because it tells Her of Joseph’s love for Jesus and speaks to Her of Her Child. She adds it to the other things placed on the closed coffer.

(...) 35.5 Joseph comes back. «Are you ready? Is Jesus ready? Have You taken His blankets and His little bed? We can’t take His cradle, but He must have at least His little mattress: poor Baby, Whose death they are seeking!»

«Joseph!» shouts Mary, while She grasps his arm.

«Yes, Mary, His death. Herod wants Him dead… because he is afraid of Him, that filthy beast, because of his human kingdom he is afraid of this innocent Child. I do not know what he will do when he realises that He has escaped. But we shall be far away by that time. I don’t think he will revenge himself by seeking Him as far as Galilee. It would be very difficult for him to find out that we are Galileans, least of all that we are from Nazareth and who we are exactly. Unless Satan helps him to thank him for being his faithful servant. But… if that should happen… God will help us just the same. Don’t cry, Mary. To see You crying is a greater pain for me than having to go into exile.»

«Forgive Me, Joseph. I am not crying for Myself, or for the few things I am losing. I am crying for you… You have already had to sacrifice yourself so much! And now once again you will have no customers, no home. How much I am costing you, Joseph!».

«How much? No, Mary. You do not cost me. You comfort me. Always. Don’t worry about the future. We have the gifts of the Magi. They will help us for the first days. Later I will find some work. A good clever workman will always make his way. You have seen what happened here. I haven’t got enough time for all the work I have.»

«I know. But who will relieve your homesickness for your native land?»

«And what about You? Who will relieve Your longing for Your home which is so dear to You?»

«Jesus. Having Him, I have what I had there.»

«And I, having Jesus, have my native land, in which I had hope up to some months ago. I have my God. You can see that I lose nothing of what is dear to me above all things. The only important thing is to save Jesus, and then we have everything. Even if we should never see this sky again, or this country or the even dearer country of Galilee, we shall always have everything, because we shall have Him. 35.6 Come, Mary, it is starting to dawn. It is time to say goodbye to our hostess and load our things. Everything will be alright.»

• Passion of the Virgin Mary and Joseph

35.4 Now there is really nothing else. Except Jesus in the little cradle. Mary thinks She should prepare the Child. She goes to the cradle and shakes it a little to wake up the Baby. But He whimpers a little, turns round and continues to sleep. Mary pats His curls gently. Jesus opens His little mouth yawning. Mary bends down and kisses His cheek. Jesus wakes up completely. He opens His eyes, sees His Mother and smiles and stretches His little hands towards Her breast.

«Yes, love of Your Mummy. Yes, Your milk. Before the usual time… But You are always ready to suck Your Mummy’s breast, My little holy Lamb!»

Jesus laughs and plays, kicking His little feet out of the blankets, moving His arms happily in a typical childish style, so beautiful to see. He pushes His feet against His Mummy’s stomach, He arches His back leaning His fair head on Her breast, and then throws Himself back and laughs, holding with His hands the laces that tie Mary’s dress to Her neck, endeavouring to open it. He looks most beautiful in His little linen shirt, plump and as rosy as a flower.

Mary bends down and in that position, looking over the cradle, as if in protection, She smiles and cries at the same time, while the Child prattles, uttering words which are not the words of all little children; among them the word «Mummy» is repeated very clearly. He looks at Her, surprised to see Her crying. He stretches one little hand towards the shiny traces of tears and it gets wet while patting Her face. And, very gracefully, He leans once again on His Mother’s breast, He clings to it and pats it with His hand.

Mary kisses His hair, picks Him up in Her arms, sits down and dresses Him. His little woollen dress has now been put on Him and His sandals have been tied on His feet. She nurses Him and Jesus avidly sucks His Mother’s good milk, and when He feels that only a little is coming from Her right breast, He looks for the left one, laughing while doing so and looking up at His Mother. Then He falls asleep again on Her breast, His rosy round little cheek resting against Her white round breast.

Mary rises very slowly and lays Him on the quilt on Her bed. She covers Him with Her mantle, She goes back to the cradle and folds its little blankets. She wonders whether She ought to take the little mattress as well. It’s so small. It can be taken. She puts it, together with the pillow, near the other things already on the coffer. And She cries over the empty cradle, poor Mother, persecuted in Her Little Creature.

• Jesus as a child
• Suffering and pain of the Virgin Mary
• Tears of the Virgin Mary

35.5 Joseph comes back. «Are you ready? Is Jesus ready? Have You taken His blankets and His little bed? We can’t take His cradle, but He must have at least His little mattress: poor Baby, Whose death they are seeking!»

«Joseph!» shouts Mary, while She grasps his arm.

«Yes, Mary, His death. Herod wants Him dead… because he is afraid of Him, that filthy beast, because of his human kingdom he is afraid of this innocent Child. I do not know what he will do when he realises that He has escaped. But we shall be far away by that time. I don’t think he will revenge himself by seeking Him as far as Galilee. It would be very difficult for him to find out that we are Galileans, least of all that we are from Nazareth and who we are exactly. Unless Satan helps him to thank him for being his faithful servant. But… if that should happen… God will help us just the same.»

• Escape to Egypt
• Herod the Great
• Lucifer - Satan
• Massacre of the Innocents

(...) You are so hampered by your humanity — it really overwhelms your souls too much — that you cannot follow My ways and you fall; or you stop disheartened. You go on saying to yourselves and to those who would like to assist you, quoting the examples of the Gospel for you: ‘But Jesus, but Mary, but Joseph (and so on for all the saints) were not like us. They were strong, they were immediately comforted in their sorrow, also in the little sorrow which they experienced, they did not feel passion. They were already beings out of this world’.

35.8 That little sorrow! They did not feel passion!

Sorrow has been our faithful friend and it had all the most varied forms and names.

Passion… do not use a word wrongly, by calling passion the vices which mislead you. Be honest and call them ‘vices’, and capital ones in addition. It is not true that we did not know them. We had eyes to see and ears to hear, and Satan caused those vices to dance in front of us and around us, showing them to us with their heap of filth in action, or tempting us with his insinuations. But, since we firmly wanted to please God, his filth and insinuations, instead of achieving the purpose intended by Satan, obtained the very opposite. And the more he worked, the more we took shelter in the light of God, disgusted as we were with the muddy darkness he showed to the eyes of our bodies and of our souls.

But we did not ignore passions in our hearts, in their philosophical setting. We loved our country, and in our country we loved our little Nazareth above every other town in Palestine. We were fond of our house, of our relatives and friends. Why should we not? We did not become slaves to our feelings because nothing is to be our master except God. But our feelings were made good companions.

My Mother uttered a cry of joy when, after about four years, She went back to Nazareth and entered Her house, and kissed the walls where Her ‘yes’ had opened Her bosom to receive the Son of God. Joseph joyfully greeted his relatives and his little nephews, who had grown in numbers and in years, and he rejoiced when he saw that his fellow citizens remembered him and they sought him because of his ability. I Myself appreciated friendship and because of Judas’ betrayal, I suffered as for a moral crucifixion. And why not? Neither My Mother nor Joseph ever placed more love for their home or their relatives before the will of God.

• Holy Family
• Jesus Christ
• Joseph of Jacob (Saint Joseph)
• Passions
• Saints and blessed
• Suffering and pain of Jesus Christ
• Suffering and pain of the Virgin Mary
• Temptation
• Temptations of Jesus Christ
• Temptations of the Virgin Mary
• The Virgin Mary

My Mother uttered a cry of joy when, after about four years, She went back to Nazareth and entered Her house, and kissed the walls where Her ‘yes’ had opened Her bosom to receive the Son of God. Joseph joyfully greeted his relatives and his little nephews, who had grown in numbers and in years, and he rejoiced when he saw that his fellow citizens remembered him and they sought him because of his ability. I Myself appreciated friendship and because of Judas’ betrayal, I suffered as for a moral crucifixion. And why not? Neither My Mother nor Joseph ever placed more love for their home or their relatives before the will of God.

• Escape to Egypt
• Rosary
• The Virgin Mary

Nothing is to be our master except God.

• Holy Family

I only wish to speak about the last vision, and omit the rest, because in any case, it is useless, as the world does not want to hear the truth concerning it. The last vision clarifies a detail quoted twice in the Gospel by Matthew, a sentence which is repeated twice: ‘Get up, take the Child and His Mother with you, and escape into Egypt’; ‘Get up, take the Child and His Mother with you and go back to the land of Israel’. And you saw that Mary was by Herself in Her room with the Child.

Mary’s virginity after Her delivery and Joseph’s chastity have been strongly denied by those who being putrid mud themselves, are not prepared to admit that one like them can be as pure and clear as light. They are wretched people whose souls are so corrupted and their minds so prostituted to the flesh, that they are incapable of thinking that one like them can respect a woman seeing in her not her flesh but her soul, neither can they elevate themselves to live in a supernatural atmosphere, craving not for what is flesh, but only for what is God.

Well, I wish to tell those deniers of the most beautiful things, those worms incapable of becoming butterflies, those reptiles covered with the slavery of their own lewdness, incapable of understanding the beauty of a lily, I wish to tell them that Mary was and remained a virgin, and that only Her soul was married to Joseph, exactly as Her spirit was united only to the Spirit of God by Whose deed She conceived Her Only Son: I, Jesus Christ, the Only Begotton Son of the Father and of Mary.

This is not a tradition embellished afterwards, out of loving respect for the Blessed Virgin Who was My Mother. It is the truth and has been known since early times.

Matthew was not born after centuries. He was a contemporary of Mary. Matthew was not a poor ignorant man brought up in a forest and likely to believe any idle story. He was a clerk in the taxation office, as you would say nowadays, he was an excise man, as we said then. He could see, hear, understand, and distinguish truth from lies. Matthew did not hear things reported by third parties. He heard them directly from Mary’s lips to Whom he turned for information, prompted by his love for his Master and for the truth.

I do not believe that those repudiators of Mary’s inviolability will dare think that She may have lied. My own relatives could have given Her the lie, had there been other children: James, Judas, Simon and Joseph were disciples together with Matthew. Therefore Matthew could have easily compared their versions, had there been more than one. But Matthew does not say: ‘Get up and take your wife’. He says: ‘Take His Mother’. Before he says: ‘A virgin betrothed to Joseph’; ‘Joseph Her spouse’.

35.11 Neither those repudiators of Purity should tell Me that it was a way of speaking particular to the Jews, as if to say ‘wife’ was a disgrace. No, deniers of Purity. At the very beginning of the Bible we read: ‘And he will join himself to his wife’. She is called ‘companion’ up to the moment of the sensual consummation of the marriage, and afterwards she is called ‘wife’ in various circumstances and in different chapters. And these are the expressions referred to the wives of the sons of Adam. And so Sarah is called the ‘wife’ of Abraham: ‘Sarah your wife’. And: ‘Take your wife and your two daughters’ is said of Lot. And in the book of Ruth states: ‘The Moabitess, the wife of Mahalon’. And the first book of the Kings says: ‘Elkanah had two wives’. And further on: ‘Elkanah then had intercourse with his wife Hannah’; and again: ‘Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife’. And again the Book of the Kings says: ‘Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, became the wife of David and bore him a son’. And what do you read in the blue book of Tobias, what the Church sings to you at your wedding, to advise you to be holy in your marriage? You read: ‘Now when Tobias arrived with his wife and his son…’; and again: ‘Tobias succeeded in escaping with his son and with his wife’.

And in the Gospels, that is in times contemporary with Christ, when therefore they wrote in a modern style of language, as compared to the ancient kind, and therefore no error of transcription could be suspected, Matthew wrote in Chapter 22: ‘… and the first, after marrying his wife died and left his wife to his brother’. And Mark in Chapter 10: ‘The man who divorces his wife…’. And Luke called Elizabeth the wife of Zacharias for four times running, and in the eighth Chapter of his Gospel he says: ‘Johanna, the wife of Chuza’.

As you can see, this name was not a word banished by those who walked in the ways of the Lord, it was not an impure word not worthy of being uttered and least of all written when there was a mention of God and of His wonderful work. And the angel, saying: ‘The Child and His Mother’, proves to you that Mary was His real Mother. But She was not a wife of Joseph. She remained forever: ‘The virgin betrothed to Joseph’.

And this is the last teaching of the vision. And it is a halo which shines on the heads of Mary and Joseph. The Inviolate Virgin. The just and chaste man. The two lilies amongst whom I grew up, receiving only the perfume of purity.

• Chastity of Saint Joseph
• Modern self-righteousness (quibbling and bickering)
• Virginity of the Virgin Mary

Mary’s virginity after Her delivery and Joseph’s chastity have been strongly denied by those who being putrid mud themselves, are not prepared to admit that one like them can be as pure and clear as light. They are wretched people whose souls are so corrupted and their minds so prostituted to the flesh, that they are incapable of thinking that one like them can respect a woman seeing in her not her flesh but her soul, neither can they elevate themselves to live in a supernatural atmosphere, craving not for what is flesh, but only for what is God.

Well, I wish to tell those deniers of the most beautiful things, those worms incapable of becoming butterflies, those reptiles covered with the slavery of their own lewdness, incapable of understanding the beauty of a lily, I wish to tell them that Mary was and remained a virgin, and that only Her soul was married to Joseph, exactly as Her spirit was united only to the Spirit of God by Whose deed She conceived Her Only Son: I, Jesus Christ, the Only Begotton Son of the Father and of Mary.

• Incarnation

• Holy Family
• Jesus Christ
• Jesus as a child
• Joseph of Jacob (Saint Joseph)
• Places - Matarea
• Summary of EMV
• The Virgin Mary

36.1 The sweet vision of the Holy Family. The place is in Egypt. I have no doubt because I see the desert and a pyramid.

I see a small house with a single floor, a ground floor, completely white. A poor house of very poor people. The walls are just plastered and whitewashed. There are two doors, one near the other, leading into the only two rooms of the house which, for the time being, I do not enter. The little house is in the middle of a small piece of sandy ground, enclosed by a fence of canes fixed into the ground, a very weak protection against thieves; it can only be used as a protection against cats or stray dogs. On the other hand, who would think of stealing where it is quite visible that there is not even the shadow of riches?

The little piece of ground, enclosed by the cane hedge, has been patiently cultivated as a little garden, notwithstanding that the earth is arid and poor. In order to make the hedge a little thicker and less scanty, they have grown some creepers which appear to be modest convolvuli, only on one side there is a shrub of jasmine in full bloom and a bush of common roses. In the kitchen garden I see some very modest vegetables in the centre under a tall plant which I do not recognise and which gives some shade to the arid ground and to the little house. A little black and white goat is tied to the plant and it is browsing on the leaves of some branches thrown on the ground.

36.2 And nearby on a mat on the ground there is the Child Jesus. I think He must be two years old, or two and a half at the very most. He is playing with some little pieces of carved wood, which look like little sheep or little horses, and with some clear wood shavings, less curly than His golden curls. With His little plump hands He is trying to put those wooden necklaces onto the necks of His little animals.

He is quiet and smiling. Very beautiful. His little head is a mass of very thick little golden curls, His skin is clear and slightly rosy, His eyes are live and bright, of a deep blue colour. The expression of course, is different, but I recognise the colour of the eyes of my Jesus: two beautiful dark sapphires.

He is wearing a kind of long white shirt which must certainly be His tunic, with short sleeves. At present He has nothing on His feet. His tiny sandals are on the mat and they, too, are being used as a toy by the Child, Who is placing His little animals on the mat, and then pulls the sandal by the strap as if it were a little cart. The sandals are very simple: a sole and two straps one of which coming from the tip and the other from the heel of the sole. The one coming from the tip then splits at a certain point and one piece passes through the eyelet of the strap from the heel, then goes round and is tied with the other piece, forming thus a ring at the ankle.

36.3 A little farther away, sitting also in the shade of the tree, there is Our Lady. She is weaving at a rustic loom and watching the Child. I can see Her white slender hands moving backwards and forwards throwing the shuttle on the weft while Her foot, shod in a sandal, is moving the pedal. She is wearing a tunic the colour of mallow flowers: a rosy violet like certain amethysts. She is not wearing anything on her head, and so I can see that Her hair is parted, forming two simple plaits which gather at the nape of Her neck. Her sleeves are long and rather narrow. She has no other ornament except Her beauty and Her most sweet expression. The colour of Her face, of Her hair and Her eyes, the form of Her face are always the same every time I see Her. She looks very young now. She looks about twenty years old.

At one point She gets up, and bends over the Child, puts His sandals back on again and ties them carefully. She then pats Him and kisses His little head and His beautiful eyes. The Child prattles and She answers. But I do not understand the words. She then goes back to Her loom; She covers the fabric and the weft with a piece of cloth, picks up the stool on which She was sitting and takes it into the house. The Child follows Her with His eyes without troubling Her when She leaves Him alone.

Obviously Her work is finished, and it is almost evening. In fact, the sun is setting on the barren sand, and a huge fire invades the whole sky behind the far away pyramid.

Mary comes back. She takes Jesus by the hand and lifts Him from His mat. The Child obeys without any resistance. While His Mother picks up His toys and the mat and takes them into the house, He toddles on His well shaped little legs towards the little goat and throws His little arms around her neck. The little goat bleats and rubs her head on Jesus’ shoulder.

Mary comes back. She is now wearing a long veil on Her head and is carrying an amphora in Her hand. She takes Jesus by the hand and they both start walking, turning round the little house towards the other side.

I follow them admiring the gracefulness of the picture. Our Lady adjusts Her step to the Child’s, and the Child toddles and trips along beside Her. I can see His rosy heels moving up and down, with the typical grace of children’s steps, on the sand of the little path. I notice that His little tunic does not reach down to His feet, but only to half His calf. It is very clean and simple and it is held tight to His waist by a little white cord.

I see that on the front of the house the hedge is broken by a rustic gate, which Mary opens to go out onto the road. It is a poor road at the end of a town or a village, whatever it may be, where it ends up with the country that here is formed of sand and some other houses, as poor as this one, with some scanty kitchen gardens.

I do not see anybody. Mary looks towards the centre of the town not towards the country, as if She were waiting for someone; She then moves towards a vessel or well, whatever it may be, which is some ten metres further up, and on which some palm trees form a shady circle. Over there some green can be seen on the ground.36.4 I can now see a man coming along the road; he is not very tall, but is well built. I recognise Joseph, who is smiling. He looks younger than when I saw him in the vision of Paradise. He may be forty years old at the most. His hair and beard are thick and black, his skin is rather tanned, his eyes are dark. An honest pleasant face, inspiring confidence.

When he sees Jesus and Mary, he quickens his step. On his left shoulder he has a kind of saw and a kind of plane, and he is holding in his hand other tools of his trade, not exactly like the ones we use now, but almost similar. He is probably coming back after working in somebody’s house. He is wearing a tunic the colour of which is between hazel and dark brown; it is not very long — it reaches a good bit up from his ankles — and its sleeves are short. I think he is wearing a leather belt at his waist. It is the proper tunic of a workman. On his feet he has sandals tied at his ankles.

Mary smiles and the Child utters cries of joy and He stretches out the hand which is free. When the three meet, Joseph bends down and offers the Child a fruit which I think is an apple, by its colour and shape. He then stretches his arms and the Child leaves His Mother and cuddles in the arms of Joseph, bending His little head into the cavity of Joseph’s neck; he kisses Him, and is kissed by Him. A scene full of loving grace.

I almost forgot to say that Mary had promptly taken Joseph’s work tools, to leave him free to embrace the Child.

Then Joseph, who had crouched down to the ground to be at the same level as Jesus, stands up, takes his tools with his left hand and holds little Jesus tight to his strong chest with his right arm. And he moves towards the house, while Mary goes to the fountain to fill Her amphora.

After entering the enclosure of the house, Joseph puts the Child down, takes Mary’s loom into the house, and then he milks the goat. Jesus watches all these activities carefully and in particular the closing of the little goat in a little closet in one side of the house.

It is now getting dark. I can see the red of the sunset becoming violet on the sands which seem to be trembling because of the heat. The pyramid looks darker.

Joseph goes into the house, into a room which must be his workshop, the kitchen, the dining room all in one. The other room is obviously the bedroom. But I do not go in there. The fire is lit in a low fireplace. There is a carpenter’s bench, a small table, some stools, some shelves with two oil lamps and some kitchenware on them. In a corner, there is Mary’s loom. And a great deal of order and cleanliness. A very poor dwelling, but very clean.

And this is a remark I wish to make: in all the visions concerning the human life of Jesus I have noticed that both He and Mary, as well as Joseph and John, are always tidy and clean both in their garments and their bodies. They wear modest and simple garments, but they are so clean that they look like gentlemen in them.

36.5 Mary comes back with the amphora and the door is closed on the rapidly growing dusk. The room is illuminated by a lamp that Joseph has lit and placed on his bench, where he now starts working on some little boards, while Mary is preparing supper. The fire, too, illuminates the room. Jesus, with His little hands leaning on the bench and His little head turned upwards, is watching what Joseph is doing.

They then sit down at the table after saying their prayers. Obviously they do not bless themselves with the sign of the cross, but they pray. It is Joseph who says the prayers, and Mary answers. I do not understand anything at all. It must be a psalm. But it is said in a language entirely unknown to me.

They then sit down at the table. The lamp is now on the table. Mary is holding Jesus in Her lap and makes Him drink some of the goat’s milk, into which She dips some small slices of bread that She has cut off a little round loaf. The crust of the loaf, as well as the inside, is very dark, it looks like rye bread or bread made with barley. It certainly contains a lot of bran, judging by its colour. In the meantime Joseph eats some bread and cheese, a small slice of cheese and a lot of bread. Then Mary sits Jesus on a little stool near Her and brings some cooked vegetables to the table — they appear to be boiled and dressed as we use them nowadays — and She also eats some of them after Joseph has helped himself. Jesus is nibbling happily at His apple, and He smiles displaying His little white teeth. Their supper ends with some olives or dates. I cannot tell exactly which because they appear to be too light to be olives and too hard to be dates. There is no wine. The supper of poor people.

But there is so much peace in this room that not even the sight of the most solemn royal palace could give me as much. And how much harmony!

36.6 Jesus does not speak this evening. He does not explain the scene. He has taught me with the gift of His vision and that is enough. May He be always and equally blessed.

• Bible - Gospel of Matthew
• Escape to Egypt
• Holy Family