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Feast of the Visitation of Mary and Elizabeth
"Elizabeth Greets Mary," part of Dark and Beautiful, An Exhibit of Paintings by Fr. Jim Hasse, SJ, at the Marian Library of the University of Dayton
Today is one of my most favorite feasts of the year: The Visitation which is proclaimed in Luke 1: 39-56.
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’
My soul proclaims your greatness, O God,
and my spirit rejoices in you, my Savior.For you have looked with favor
upon your lowly servant,
and from this day forward
all generations will call me blessed.For you, the Almighty, have done great things for me,
and holy is your Name.Your mercy reaches from age to age
for those who fear you.
You have shown strength with your arm;
and have scattered the proud in their conceit;you have deposed the mighty from their thrones
and raised the lowly to high places.
You have filled the hungry with good things,
while you have sent the rich away empty.You have come to the aid of Israel your servant,
mindful of your mercy—
the promise you made to our ancestors –
to Sarah and Abraham
and their descendants forever.And Mary remained with her for about three months and then returned to her home.
What is a significant moment of “visitation” in your own life? How did this experience lead to a “magnificat” of praise to God?
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My “visitation” came when I was about 10. It was a hot summer day and my bedroom was about 80 degrees. We didn’t have air conditioning in my house. I remember being in my room and felt an intense peace fill my heart. I don’t remember what happened leading up to it, but while this peace filled my heart I also had the words “you will be Catholic.” These words were not audible, but resonated inside of me. They were followed very closely by, “I want you to be a nun.” — this isn’t really what a protestant girl expects, but the words still were there. My only reply was, “not my will but Yours.” This encounter has started me on a journey of faith and discovery that has been incredible. It hasn’t always been easy, there have been a lot of periods of heartache and suffering, but still, the journey continues.
my vistitation experience is more earthbound. a few years ago i was in a horrible car accident. i woke up in the ambulance briefly and couldn’t remember my name, but i remembered someone else’s. “call jama.” i gave them the phone number and then i was unconscious again for two days. that whole time, jama was with me. she was there when i woke up, even when no family was, and she was there until i went home. the extraordinary thing about this is that jama is not my friend and she is not family, she is my therapist. i don’t know why i remembered her name in the ambulance when i couldn’t recall my own, and i can’t say why she came and stayed, but she did. she has been with me in a special god-ordained way from the beginning, and this experience solidified that for me. her presence in times of trouble has caused me to sing praise to god more than a few times.
There have been several times in my life when I’ve received a “Visitation” of sorts. Like KC, they were in the form of a message that I “heard” and that usually I found disquieting (and that later proved to be true).
But one that had happier circumstances came about when I was 43. You’ve probably heard me tell it before. It appeared that I would be living the rest of my life alone, and I was ordering my life along those lines, when Karol suddenly appeared in my life. I prayed, essentially, “What’s going on here? This isn’t what I was planning!” And God responded, “Will you shut up and listen for a change?” And 23 years later, I’m still listening.
My friend Lillian, coincidentally a member of Opus Dei, was leading a group in a rosary recitation on a Tuesday night, and we were meditating on the Joyful Mysteries. As part of her meditation on the Visitation, Lillian said, “Can you imagine what that visit would be like if it happened today? Mary would have said, “Elizabeth! Look at you! It’s wonderful, but at your age?” And Elizabeth would have replied, “You should talk!”
Not a conventional meditation, but once we finished laughing, it really got us thinking.
I’ve had several “visitations” in the past four years. The first startled me as a 16 year old high school freshman who never thought she’d be a nun, so I disregarded my first ‘call”. The second came after my great aunt (sr catherine leo, op) passed away before i got to know her. The third that I can think of right off the top of my head is coming home from Boston during the first week of May of 2010. While I was in Boston, I felt the call hit right between my eyes “I want you to be a nun.” I had no idea where I’d be a year after that.