School of prayer

Vatican Insider provided the following report, but I can't seem to find the speech to which it refers; rather, I found the text of his general audience, which I posted below the line. 

"The family – he explained to pilgrims – is a domestic Church and must be the first school of prayer,” because “a truly authentic Christian education cannot do without the experience of prayer.”

It is important for children to adopt this habit. Indeed, the Pope said, “if one does not learn to pray in the family, it then becomes difficult to bridge the gap.” Hence the Pope’s invitation “to rediscover the beauty of praying together as a family in the school of the Holy Family of Nazareth, thus really becoming one heart and one soul, like a true family.”

If in Jesus Christ’s family, Mary, as portrayed in the Gospels, is “the model for each and every Christian who conserves and compares Jesus words with his actions,” her ability to “live off God’s gaze, is, as it were, contagious” and “the first individual to experience this was Saint Joseph”: “His humble and sincere love for his promised wife and his decision to unite his life with Mary’s, brought this man, who was already “good” into a unique relationship with God.”

Even though there is no record of anything Joseph said in the Gospels, according to the Pope “his presence, though silent, is faithful, constant and active.” Indeed, Benedict XVI added, “we can imagine how he, just like his wife, and in harmony with her, must have lived Jesus’ childhood and adolescence, feeling his presence in their family.”

“Joseph fulfilled his fatherly role entirely and in every aspect” and so according to the Pope, he “certainly…educated Jesus in prayer, together with Mary,” “he will have taken his to the synagogue, to the Saturday rites, as well as to Jerusalem, to attend the great feasts celebrated by the Israeli people,” guiding prayer in his household according to the Jewish tradition.

“Thus – the Pope added – during his daily routine in Nazareth, spent going between his simple home and Joseph’s workshop, Jesus learnt to alternate prayer and work and to offer God his hard work to bring money home to his family.”

And this is why – the Pope concluded – the Family of Nazareth “is the supreme model used by the Church, by which through Jesus’ presence and thanks to his mediation, everyone is able to experience a filial relationship with God, who is also capable of transforming interpersonal relations.”
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Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

Our continuing catechesis on prayer leads us, during this Christmas season, to reflect on the place of prayer in the life of the Holy Family of Nazareth. In the home of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we learn to contemplate the mystery of God’s presence and to grow as faithful disciples of Christ.

The Gospels present Mary as the supreme model of prayerful medition on the mysteries of Christ’s life; in praying the Rosary, in fact, we unite ourselves to her contemplation of those mysteries in faith and hope.

Saint Joseph fulfilled his vocation as the father of the Holy Family by teaching Jesus the importance of quiet fidelity to work, prayer and observance of the precepts of the Law. Jesus’ unique relationship with his heavenly Father was reflected in the prayer life of the Holy Family and stands at the heart of all Christian prayer.

May the example of the Holy Family inspire all Christian families to be schools of prayer, where parents and children alike come to know that closeness to God which we joyfully celebrate in these days of Christmas.