Our Friends the Saints: Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (31 May)

The Visitation, from Chartres Cathedral, before 1260

This Feast commemorates the visit of the Blessed Virgin to her cousin Elizabeth, recorded in the Gospel according to Luke (1:39-56).

Elizabeth, who was then carrying John the Baptist, greeted Mary with the words, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Mary broke into the song of praise which we call the Magnificat, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.”

In this scene, the unborn John the Baptist, the prophet who was to prepare the way of the Lord, rejoices in the presence of him whose coming he is later to herald publicly to all Israel, for the Gospel records that when Mary’s greeting came to her kinswoman’s ears, the babe in Elizabeth’s womb leaped for joy.

–from Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 1997, p. 250.

Father in Heaven, by whose grace the virgin mother of thy incarnate Son was blessed in bearing him, but still more blessed in keeping thy word: Grant us who honor the exaltation of her lowliness to follow the example of her devotion to thy will; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.