Tag Archives: Visitation

The Visitation

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This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Advent. Elizabeth’s joy at her own pregnancy after so many years of barrenness is overshadowed by the joy at Mary’s visit – or rather that the unborn Lord would honor her with his presence. How wonderful it would be if we had that same attitude concerning the presence of our Lord in our gathering together, and in the Word, and in the Supper: “Blessed be God who has come to us this day.” I think that too often we think of worship as our good deed of bringing ourselves to God, when, in fact, it is a time and place where God comes to us. Continue reading →

Closer to the Nativity

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The Season of Advent offers us readings that begin with apocalyptic scenes of Jesus’ prediction of the coming destruction of the Temple and the signs of “end times.” It is a gospel taken from Holy Week and seemed a bit out of place in Advent. But one message of the readings was “pay attention” for the signs of a promised age to come. The Season of Advent is a season in preparation of the “three comings of Christ” – in history past with his birth in Bethlehem, in history future at his second coming, and in the present at our reception of Him into our hearts. The gospels for Advent have moved us from the promise of a Messiah to the herald’s ministry of announcing his arrival via John the Baptist in the readings from the 2nd and 3rd Sundays of Advent. We then come to the 4th Sunday of Advent in lectionary cycle C. Continue reading →

The Visitation

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VisitationThe gospel for today’s celebration of the Visitation is taken from the Infancy Narratives of Luke’s Gospel. The first part of the gospel is traditionally known as the Visitation.

39 During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, 42 cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”  (Luke 1:39-16)

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The Promise of Mercy

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Today’s gospel is Mary’s prayer immediately following her encounter with her cousin Elizabeth in a scene known as the Visitation. It is part of a larger prayer known as the Magnificat and forms part of every evening prayer in the Church’s Divine Office. Mary’s prayer in today’s reading is about something much bigger than herself. When she thanks God for the things he has done for her, she remembers at the same time the things he has done for generations before her. Continue reading →

A piece of the Tapestry

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Today we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation when the Blessed Virgin Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth immediately after the events of the Annunciation when the Angel Gabriel proclaimed the conception of the Christ Child by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Lucan narrative in Chapter 1 is about as rich a text as one could ask for. It is rich in OT echoes with strains of 1 Samuel woven into the thread of the story. It foreshadows Luke’s emphasis of the Holy Spirit so profoundly described in his second book, Acts of the Apostles. Continue reading →

How we think of her

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Today we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation when the Blessed Virgin Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth. It is but one piece of the mosaic of this woman. Today’s gospel passage, the Magnificat is a mosaic of Old Testament quotations and allusions interpreting the coming of Jesus. As a whole the canticle sees these actions of God as part of a longstanding process of overthrowing proud human expectations and exalting the lowly. It is part of the mosaic we have built over the millennia that speaks of how we consider Mary in the role of salvation history – a mosaic that richly, perhaps extravagantly, places Mary above us, on a pedestal, beyond our reach. We think of her as the Queen of Heaven, robed in the royal drapings of the Queen Mother – and so she is. We think of her as the Pieta at the foot of the cross, the Mother of Sorrows – and so she is. Think of all the titles and honorifics that we bestow upon her. Continue reading →

Carrying Christ to the World

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If today’s gospel sounds not only familiar but brings about the thought, “didn’t I just hear that gospel….?” – you are correct. It is a scene from Luke’s gospel called the Visitation when Mary goes in haste to the hill country to see her relative Elizabeth, mother-to-be of John the Baptist. It was proclaimed as the gospel in the Sunday just past, and is the traditional reading for the 4th Tuesday in Advent. Continue reading →

The Visitation

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VisitationThis coming Sunday is the Solemnity of the Assumption. The gospel is taken from the Infancy Narratives of Luke’s Gospel. The first part of the gospel is traditionally known as the Visitation.

39 During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, 42 cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”  (Luke 1:39-16)

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A piece of the mosaic

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VisitationToday we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation when the Blessed Virgin Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth immediately after the events of the Annunciation when the Angel Gabriel proclaimed the conception of the Christ Child by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Lucan narrative in Chapter 1 is about as rich a text as one could ask for. It is rich in OT echoes with strains of 1 Samuel woven into the thread of the story. It foreshadows Luke’s emphasis of the Holy Spirit so profoundly described in his second book, Acts of the Apostles.

Continue reading →

The bedrock of Joy

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In the season of Advent and Christmas, we will hear a lot about Mary, the mother of Jesus.  We’ll hear about her obedience, her purity, her faith, her consent.  We’ll see her in outdoor Nativity displays, draped in blue, with downcast eyes and a beatific smile.  We’ll enjoy watching our children dramatize her story in “virtual pageants” on Christmas Eve.  We’ll honor her legacy with some of the most beloved prayers, liturgies, and carols we know. All of it true and right.  But this morning let us consider Mary, the prophet.  Mary, the voice of the downtrodden.  Mary, the singer of the Magnificat, God’s gorgeous justice song.

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