The Workshop of Nazareth, what is it all about? The creation of the Workshop of Nazareth sprouted out of a personal prayer experience called Imaginative Contemplation. Through this I found myself engaged in a kind of prayer in which the child Jesus was looking at his papa, St. Joseph, going to his workshop. He sees him taking pieces of wood, tools, and creating new things. He starts playing with the wood shavings and wood pieces (similar to Legos) and begins to mimic his father’s movements as he works with his tools.
As a child Jesus continues to grow. As God, Jesus is infinite wisdom. As a human, perhaps, Jesus needed to learn by trial and error as we do. Can we imagine father and son going to the woods? St. Joseph will teach the child Jesus what kind of tree was the best to cut and then to take to the workshop. He will teach him what trees not to choose because they might be too young or too old. It was a teaching and learning process. Then, inside the workshop, St. Joseph will teach the child Jesus how to treat and prepare the wood for each to be transformed into a particular project or item. Lessons will include how much and what kind of wood to use to build a bench or stool or even a table among other things. St. Joseph will teach the child Jesus to budget his time to have orders ready for customers. That could have been the Workshop of Nazareth back then.
These prayer experiences then came to life in a whole new way. Today, the real Workshop of Nazareth is our own heart. The one teaching is not St. Joseph but Jesus, and we as individuals are the ones learning the lesson. In the Workshop of Nazareth, our own heart, Jesus wants to teach us project by project, and we are the only ones who can choose to engage in the learning process or not.
Are you willing to go inside your own heart (your interior life)? Today, Workshop of Nazareth is a place that only you, and only you, can meet with Jesus. Jesus is a gentle-man, and He would not force you or anyone to learn anything. This is a voluntary process. That gentle-voice in your heart, is like that voice crying out in the desert, a call to pay attention to what is going on inside ourselves, and a call to prepare for what is to come.
When I started offering the workshops, it was as though I was not teaching but experiencing the process with the same intensity as others. I too was living my own transformation. I was led by the Divine Carpenter. In the situation that I’m in today, I’m working not only with the tools but I also go through the process. Project by project, Jesus is teaching me. Day by day, Jesus is teaching me.
What does Jesus want to teach you today? Are you willing to learn the lesson?
