The Feast of the Visitation; Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth

 

May 31 is the Feast of the Visitation, the day on which the Blessed Virgin Mary, having been told at the Annunciation by the angel Gabriel that she had been chosen to bear the Son of God, went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who herself was pregnant with John the Baptist.
The scene is beautiful: As Mary greets her cousin, the baby leaps in Elizabeth's womb, and Elizabeth cries out in the words that make up the second sentence of the Hail Mary: "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb!" Mary, overflowing with joy herself, responds with the Magnificat, a wondrous canticle (a biblical hymn) extolling the greatness of God and thanking Him for the favor He has shown her.
The Magnificat has become part of vespers, the official evening prayer of the Catholic Church, and even if, as laymen, we do not celebrate the Liturgy of the Hours, we can still incorporate it into our own evening prayers. What better way to remind ourselves on this feast--and every day--of the joy of the Blessed Virgin in bearing our Savior.
(A stained-glass window of the Visitation in Saint Mary's Church, Painesville, OH. Photo © Scott P. Richert)