Today, we are celebrating the Holy Family of Nazareth. It is a most suitable context because Christmas is the Feast of the family par excellence. This is demonstrated by numerous traditions and social customs, especially the practice of gathering together as a family. Jesus willed to be born and to grow up in a human family; He had the Virgin Mary as his mother and Joseph who acted as his father; they raised and educated him with immense love.

Jesus' family truly deserves the title "Holy", for it was fully engaged in the desire to do the will of God. On the one hand, it was a family like all others and as such, it is a model of conjugal love, collaboration, sacrifice and entrustment to divine Providence, hard work and solidarity; in short, of all those values that the family safeguards and promotes, making an important contribution to forming the fabric of every society.

—Today we thank God, but also the Virgin Mary and St Joseph, who with much faith and willingness cooperated in the Lord's plan of salvation.