Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Holy Family of Nazareth, come into our home.
We have spent so much time praying for our family to grow that sometimes we forget something important:
You are already here.
Before there is a positive pregnancy test.
Before there is an ultrasound.
Before there is an adoption match.
Before there is a baby sleeping in the crib.
Before anyone calls us Mom or Dad.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, teach us the hidden way of Nazareth.
Teach us The JMJ Way.
Your home was not important because the world considered it important.
Most of your life together was hidden.
There were meals to prepare.
Floors to sweep.
Clothes to wash.
Work to finish.
Neighbors to help.
Prayers to say.
Things to repair.
Ordinary conversations.
Tired evenings.
Quiet mornings.
Thousands of small acts of love that no one recorded.
And in the middle of all that ordinary life lived the Son of God.
Teach us to believe that holiness can grow in our ordinary life too.
When we wake in the morning, let the first movements of our hearts belong to God.
When we make the bed, prepare breakfast, wash dishes, answer emails, drive to work, fold laundry, pay bills, clean the house, care for someone, or fall exhausted into bed, teach us to offer these hidden things to God.
Let nothing be wasted.
Take our ordinary duties.
Take our waiting.
Take our disappointment.
Take even our heartbeats.
Let every small thing become an offering for the glory of God, the good of souls, the conversion of sinners, reparation for sin, and the sanctification of our family.
And when we forget to consciously offer it, Lord, receive the intention we have already placed in Your hands:
Let our whole life belong to You.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, you know family life from the inside.
Mary, you know the mystery of motherhood.
Joseph, you know the mystery of fatherhood.
Jesus, You know what it means to be a child entrusted to the love and protection of a mother and father.
So look with tenderness upon those who desperately desire that ordinary family life.
We are not asking for perfection.
We are asking for the ordinary things.
A baby crying at three in the morning.
Bottles or feedings.
Diapers.
Tiny socks disappearing in the laundry.
A high chair covered in food.
A toddler asking “why?” one hundred times.
Crayons on the table.
Toys underfoot.
Bedtime prayers.
First days of school.
Family dinners.
Sick days.
Birthday candles.
Christmas mornings.
Sunday Mass with a child who may not sit still.
The beautiful, exhausting, hidden work of raising a human being.
Those things can seem small to someone who has always had them.
To someone waiting for a child, they can feel enormous.
Holy Family, we want that life.
If it is God’s will, please pray that we may receive it.
Mary, pray for conception where conception is possible.
Joseph, pray for healing where healing is needed.
Jesus, guide physicians and treatments so that everything pursued respects the dignity of marriage and human life.
And if adoption is the road before us, Holy Family, walk it with us.
You know something about family formed through receiving rather than possessing.
Joseph, you received Jesus with a father’s complete love though His life did not originate from your body.
Teach adoptive fathers to love with that freedom.
Mary, teach adoptive mothers to receive a child as a person with a story that began before the moment they first held that child.
Bless the mothers and fathers through whom adopted children receive life.
Protect their dignity.
Give them support, freedom, wisdom, and peace.
And protect every child from ever feeling that love requires choosing between the people who gave them life and the people raising them.
Let love make room for truth.
Holy Family, protect marriages during the waiting.
Do not let husband and wife become merely partners in an infertility project or adoption process.
Help them remain lovers, friends, companions, and fellow pilgrims toward heaven.
Let them laugh.
Let them rest.
Let them enjoy one another.
Let their home contain joy even while something is missing.
And when the missing place becomes painfully obvious, sit there with them.
Jesus, sit beside the empty crib.
Mary, sit beside the woman whose arms ache.
Joseph, sit beside the man who wonders whether he will ever hear someone call him Dad.
Do not rush them.
Simply remain.
Holy Family, remember the grandparents waiting too.
Remember siblings waiting to become aunts and uncles.
Remember families who have already imagined the child who has not yet arrived.
Keep their longing from becoming pressure.
Let it become prayer.
And remember those whose hoped-for child never comes.
Do not let them believe their home has somehow failed to become holy.
Nazareth teaches us that the greatness of a home is not measured by its size, wealth, recognition, or accomplishments.
A home becomes holy when God is welcomed there.
So whether our table someday has two chairs or ten, come sit with us.
Whether our hallway remains quiet or fills with children’s footsteps, walk through it.
Whether the nursery becomes occupied soon, years from now, or never, claim the whole house for Christ.
Let Jesus be its center.
Mary, teach us to ponder.
Joseph, teach us to obey.
Jesus, teach us to love.
And if someday a child finally enters this home, let that child find something already waiting here that is more important than furniture, clothing, toys, or a beautifully prepared nursery:
a home where God is loved.
Let our child learn Jesus’ name from our lips.
Let our child see us pray.
Let our child know the Eucharist.
Let our child know Mary as Mother.
Let our child know Joseph as protector.
Let our child understand that holiness is not something reserved for extraordinary people doing extraordinary things.
It begins here.
At the kitchen table.
Beside the bed.
In forgiveness.
In work.
In sacrifice.
In laughter.
In patience.
In little things done with great love.
And if we are still waiting, teach us to begin living that way now.
We do not need to wait for a child before becoming a holy family.
We can begin today.
One prayer.
One sacrifice.
One hidden act of kindness.
One ordinary duty offered to God.
One heartbeat at a time.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, make our home another little Nazareth.
And someday, if God wills it, let a child grow there too.
Always remember Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
Holy Family! Help us to be a holy family and pray for us!
Amen.