At the end of his 1981 encyclical on the family, Pope John Paul II had this to say about the Holy Family: “Through God’s mysterious design, it was in that family that the Son of God spent long years of a hidden life. It is therefore the prototype and example for all Christian families. It was unique in the world. Its life was passed in anonymity and silence in a little town in Palestine. It underwent trials of poverty, persecution and exile. It glorified God in an incomparably exalted and pure way.” This statement focuses our attention on two central elements of family life: the ordinariness of home life, and the sufferings that family members will inevitably have to face. The Holy Family, by its wonderful example, can help all families, the Holy Father said, “to be faithful to their day-to-day duties, to bear the cares and tribulations of life, [and] to be open and generous to the needs of others.”