In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me.

I adore you with profound reverence.

I ask your pardon for my sins and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful.

My immaculate Mother St. Joseph, my father, and Lord, my guardian angel, and deceit for me.

Lord, we ask you to help us have a conversation with you about the inestimable value of ordinary life.

30 of your 33 years was a lifestyle like millions of others. You had a line of work. You were a skilled manual labor, a carpenter.

You lived in a village like everybody else.

You lived in a home.

You had your ever-expanding circle of friends.

You had conversations with friends.

You visited sick people whom you knew.

You were very much a people person.

Lord, help us learn.

Obviously, the Holy Spirit did not use American consultants.

Because if he did, I'm morally certain that the American consultants with all the goodwill in the world

would have advised the evangelical writers to illustrate interesting and catchy episodes of your pre-teen years, your teen years, your life in your early 20s and late 20s.

Pithy sayings, wise insights, anecdotes, your adventures as a child, as a teen, anecdotes of the different characters you met along the way of your professional life.

But virtually there's nothing.

Barring, in a certain sense, the minimum, what we now call the joyful mysteries narrated by Luke.

And this silence, to use an idea of St. Jose Maria, speaks volumes, though no volumes have been written about that hidden life.

Undoubtedly, tradition has it that St. Luke, who may not have been an immediate disciple of our Lord, seems like he was a disciple of a

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