Thoughts on The Visitation

On May 31st we celebrated the feast of the Visitation. This is the scene of Mary travelling with haste into the hill country to visit her cousin Elizabeth who also has just conceived. This is the occasion where we not only get part of the Hail Mary from the lips of St. Elizabeth, but we also get the beautiful and poetic Magnificat from Mary. It's such a joyous moment. Elizabeth is filled with the holy spirit, she's overjoyed to meet the mother of her Lord. Mary is honored but diverts all that attention back to God: "My soul magnifies the Lord". Then there's John the Baptist leaping in the womb for joy. It's the first public procession of Jesus. It's the first adoration of Jesus in the tabernacle. The tabernacle is the most holy and blessed Virgin.

It's also a great pro-life message. During the annunciation Mary is visited by the Angel Gabriel and asked to bear Jesus the Messiah. She then gives her acceptance, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your will". It's at this moment, the moment of her agreement to God's plan, that Jesus is conceived in her womb by the Holy Spirit. The angel also tells her about her kinswoman Elizabeth bearing a child late in life and so it says that Mary went 'with haste' to the hill countries to visit her. So when she arrives for this scene of the Visitation, the pre-born Jesus is no more than a week or two old in the womb, however both Elizabeth and her pre-born son John recognize this tiny savior as who He is.