A family like any family

Despite the unique nature of the virginal marriage of Mary and Joseph, and the purely divine fertility in Mary's womb, the Holy Family had an exterior daily life just like other families.

On a human level, this family lived a simple, laborious life, similar to that of the families around them, faithful to God and to the Israeli traditions.

The neighbors knew more or less the other members of Mary and Joseph's family. Everyone knew who were Mary's parents, Joachim and Anna, and who were her cousins, amongst whom they knew her cousin Elizabeth and Zacharias (Elizabeth's husband) who served at the temple (Lk 1: 36-40). They had heard that Elizabeth and Zacharias had had a son in their old age, named John (the future John the Baptist, the precursor), who was Jesus' cousin.

Elizabeth and Joachim lived in Aïn Karim; which was Mary's destination after learning from the angel that her middle-aged cousin was expecting a baby. Mary, much younger than her relative, stayed with her for three months' time, helping Elizabeth prepare for the birth of John the Baptist, as well as awaiting the birth of her own Son.

Joseph (whose geneology is known from the Bible in Matthew 1:1-16), also had uncles and cousins living in or near Nazareth whom he frequented regularly.

In short, this family, with social bonds like any other family, was well settled in Galilee and had numerous cousins in the region. Joseph, with his Davidic lineage also had family in Judea.

The Sacred Scripture tells us nothing of Mary's childhood. What we do know only comes from tradition and certain apocryphal writings, which have been deemed worthy by this tradition.

From early childhood, the best possible religious education

From this tradition, we learn that as early as the age of three, Mary would have been presented in the temple by her parents where she would have been brought up until about the age of 12. Therefore the future Mother of the Messiah must have received the best possible religious education, which was the custom for faithful families who entrusted their children to God from the youngest age. Later these young girls went back home to be wed, because celibacy was not practiced in those times.

Thus, in due time, when Mary's education was completed, her parents sought a husband for her: the one they chose was, prividentially, a descendant of King David, "from the stump of Jesse" (Is 11: 1), one designated in Heaven.

The betrothal and the wedding took place in accordance to custom, for the onlookers at least, even though the supernatural reality of what the Lord was preparing for the holy bride and groom hid a tremendous and inexpressible mystery.

The Gospel reveals the essence of that mystery with the story of the Annunciation by the angel Gabriel, and Mary's answer, the "fiat" which permitted the Incarnation of the Son of God in her virginal womb.

We can only imagine the psychological and supernatural time of trial for Joseph as well as Mary, faced with these events far beyond human understanding: the long awaited for Messiah, God's Son himself, was entrusted to them as their own child, taking flesh of Mary, still virgin... 

"He, of divine condition, ... emptied himself, ... coming in human likeness" (Phi 2: 6).