Jump to Any Step (12 of 36 · Click to Expand All 36 Days & Exercises)
01. The Presupposition & How to Enter the Exercises02. Principle and Foundation03. The Daily & Particular Examen04. Meditation with the Three Powers on the First, Second & Third Sin05. Meditation on Personal Sins & The Exclamation of Wonder at God’s Mercy06. Repetitions of the First & Second Exercises with the Triple Colloquy07. Meditation with the Five Senses on Ultimate Separation08. The Call of the Temporal King & The Oblation to the Eternal King09. The First Contemplation: The Incarnation10. The Second Contemplation: The Nativity & Application of the Five Senses11. The Presentation in the Temple & The Flight into Egypt12. The Hidden Life at Nazareth & Finding the Boy Jesus in the Temple13. Meditation on the Two Standards & Second Week Rules for Discernment14. Meditation on the Three Pairs of Men15. Departure from Nazareth & Baptism in the River Jordan16. Christ Fasting & Tempted in the Desert17. The Call of the Apostles & The Wedding at Cana18. The Sermon on the Mount19. Calming the Storm & Walking on the Waters20. Sending the Apostles, The Sinful Woman Forgiven, Feeding the 5,000, The Transfiguration & Preaching in the Temple21. The Raising of Lazarus & The Supper at Bethany22. Palm Sunday: The Humble Entry into Jerusalem23. The Three Manners of Humility24. Making an Election25. The Last Supper, Washing the Feet & The Agony in Gethsemane26. Betrayal, Arrest & The Night at the Houses of Annas and Caiaphas27. Christ Before Pilate & Before Herod28. The Scourging at the Pillar, Crowning with Thorns & ‘Ecce Homo’29. Carrying the Cross & The Crucifixion30. The Descent from the Cross, The Burial & The Silence of Holy Saturday31. The Resurrection: Christ Appears to His Mother & to Mary Magdalene32. The Road to Emmaus, The Appearance to St. Peter & The Upper Room33. St. Thomas’s Confession & Breakfast by the Sea of Galilee34. The Great Commission & The Ascension of Christ Our Lord35. Contemplation to Gain Love36. The Three Methods of Prayer
Movement II · The Second Week (Illuminative Way) · Step 12 · Week 2, Day 3
St. Ignatius of Loyola · Exx. 134–135, 271–272

The Hidden Life at Nazareth & Finding the Boy Jesus in the Temple

Ignatius’s Preamble to Consider States of Life: thirty quiet years of ordinary obedience, family life, and manual labor in Nazareth, side by side with the twelve-year-old Jesus staying behind in Jerusalem for ‘My Father’s business.’

Assigned Scripture Reading (NIV) & Mystery Points

Scripture Reading: Luke 2:40–52 · Mark 6:3

Luke 2:40–52 (NIV)
40And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him. 41Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. 42When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. 43After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. 46After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” 49“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” 50But they did not understand what he was saying to them. 51Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.
Mark 6:3 (NIV)
3Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

Points of the Mystery from St. Ignatius

Step 1 · Entering the Hour (2 Minutes)

Before You Start

Read Luke 2:40–52 and Mark 6:3. Stand a step or two from your place of prayer for an Our Father (Exx. 75), reverence the Lord, and pray the Preparatory Prayer (Exx. 46).

Step 2 · Orienting the Heart & Imagination (5 Minutes)

The Preludes

First Prelude · The Two Mysteries (Exx. 134, 271–272)

Recall both the thirty hidden years of Jesus’ obedience and manual carpentry in Nazareth, and the three days at age twelve when He left His parents’ caravan to sit in the Temple about His Father’s business.

Second Prelude · Composition of Place

See first the small carpenter’s workshop and courtyard in Nazareth smelling of cedar and olive wood; then see the porticoes of the Jerusalem Temple where the twelve-year-old Boy sits listening and speaking among the elders.

Third Prelude · Asking for What I Desire (Exx. 104, 135)

Ask for interior knowledge of our Lord so as to love and follow Him more closely, and for light to see how He calls you to serve Him within your own state of life.

Step 3 · The Body of the Exercise (30–40 Minutes)

How to Pray Day 3 (Nazareth, the Temple & States of Life)

Ignatius intentionally pairs these two mysteries on Day 3 as the Preamble to Consider States of Life (Exx. 135). Spend 15–20 minutes on each:

Contemplation 1 · Thirty Hidden Years of Obedience & Bodily Labor at Nazareth (Luke 2:51–52, Exx. 134, 271)

  • SEE the Persons: Look into the home and workshop at Nazareth over three full decades. See Jesus as a boy, a young man, and a thirty-year-old craftsman—planing wood, mending yokes and doors for neighbors, eating simple meals with Mary and Joseph, praying the Psalms in the village synagogue.
  • HEAR What They Say: Hear the ordinary, unpretentious conversation of a working household. Nobody in Nazareth thinks Jesus is a celebrity; later they will say in surprise, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?” (Mark 6:3).
  • WATCH What They Do: Watch the Son of God spend ninety percent of His earthly life in hiddenness, family stability, bodily labor, and quiet obedience—accomplishing the Father’s will without preaching a single public sermon or working a single public miracle.
  • Reflect on yourself: Do I secretly believe that only dramatic, heroic, or monastic actions count for God—while Christ Himself sanctified thirty years of hidden family fidelity, manual work, and quiet availability to neighbors?

Contemplation 2 · Twelve Years Old in the Temple — ‘My Father’s Business’ (Luke 2:41–50, Exx. 134, 272)

  • SEE the Persons: See Mary and Joseph discovering at the end of the first day’s journey that Jesus is missing; see their three days of anxious searching through the streets of Jerusalem; see them finally finding the twelve-year-old Boy sitting calmly among the teachers in the Temple.
  • HEAR What They Say: Hear Mary’s honest ache: “Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us? Behold, Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing.” And hear Jesus’ mysterious, clear reply: “How is it that ye sought Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”
  • WATCH What They Do: Watch how Jesus asserts the absolute primacy of His Father’s call—and then immediately goes back down with them to Nazareth and is subject to them for eighteen more years until the Father’s hour arrives.
  • Reflect on yourself: How do these two scenes fit together in my own life? How can my heart belong undividedly to ‘my Father’s business’ while my feet remain faithfully planted in the Nazareth of my family, marriage, and daily work?

Ignatius’s Preamble on States of Life (Exx. 135)

Read Ignatius’s note in Exx. 135: he observes that in the obedience of Nazareth, Christ gives us the example of the first state (keeping the Commandments in ordinary family and civic life), while in the Temple He shows the second state (evangelical perfection and complete availability to the Father’s work). Yet notice: it is the exact same Jesus in both places. Whether called to the cloister or called to be a rooted tree and pillar in marriage and the local church, the call is the same: undivided love for the Father.

Step 4 · Friend to Friend & Looking Back (15–20 Minutes)

Colloquy, Post-Prayer Review & Repetitions

1. The Colloquy (5 Minutes)

Speak to Jesus the Carpenter of Nazareth and Teacher in the Temple. Ask Him to show you how to live the undivided heart of the Temple right inside the daily wood-shavings and obligations of your Nazareth. Close with an Our Father.

2. The Post-Prayer Examen of Prayer (15 Minutes · Exx. 77)

After finishing the Our Father, remain quiet for ten to fifteen minutes (sitting or walking slowly) to examine how your prayer went. Ask: Where did my heart feel warmed, expanded, drawn to trust, or moved to tears (consolation)? Where did I feel dry, distracted, defensive, or negotiating with God (desolation or resistance)? Write down two or three honest sentences in your notebook.

3. Repetitions & Carrying the Mystery Through the Day

Tomorrow (Day 4) brings the two great structural meditations of the Second Week: The Two Standards and The Three Pairs of Men, where Ignatius exposes the subtle illusions that keep us from surrendering completely to Christ’s way.

Primary Text · From St. Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises (Exx. 134–135, 271–272)
[134] Having already seen the example which Christ our Lord has given us for the first state, which is the custody of the Commandments, being in obedience to His parents; and likewise for the second, which is of evangelical perfection, when He remained in the Temple, leaving His adoptive father and His natural Mother, to attend strictly to the service of His Eternal Father; we shall commence, while contemplating His life, to investigate and to ask in what life or state His Divine Majesty wishes to make use of us. [271] OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST OUR LORD FROM TWELVE TO THIRTY YEARS (Luke ii, 51-52.) First Point. First: He was obedient to His parents. Second Point. Second: "He advanced in wisdom, age and grace." Third Point. Third: He Appears to have exercised the art of carpenter, as St. Mark indicates includes chapter vi: "Results is not this the carpenter?"
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