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Christianity seems at first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into something beyond. One has a glimpse of a country where they do not talk of those things, except perhaps as a joke. Every one there is filled full with what we should call goodness as a mirror is filled with light. But they do
not call it goodness. They do not call it anything. They are not thinking of it. They are too busy looking at the source from which it comes.
- C. S. Lewis, Into the Wardrobe
(Spend some time looking unto the Source of all goodness this day, allowing your soul to be warmed in love.)
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ZEP 3:14-18A; ISAIAH 12:2-3, 4BCD, 5-6
LK 1:39-56
Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
"Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled."
And Mary said:
"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever."
Mary remained with her about three months
and then returned to her home.
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture |
"Be not discouraged!" —Zephaniah 3:16
Recently, I was hospitalized for a short time. No one knew I was in the hospital, as I had no time to call people to pass the word. Naturally, I had no visitors during that brief stay. I could easily relate to Elizabeth's experience on the day that Mary visited her. Elizabeth had gone into seclusion for five months (Lk 1:24), implying that she had no visitors in that interval. She couldn't have expected Mary to visit, since to her knowledge Mary was not aware she was pregnant. God directly
informed Mary of Elizabeth's pregnancy, and put it in Mary's heart to visit her (Lk 1:39ff).
This means that the feast of the Visitation of Mary is a great sign of hope. When we need a visitor, let us ask God to send Mary to us, even if no one else is aware that we need encouragement (see Zep 3:16). When we seclude ourselves from others, Mary is not subject to our visiting restrictions. She is favored by God (Lk 1:30) with inside information on our condition. She has a motherly heart for us that loves its
way into our life. She can't stop from being concerned about her discouraged, suffering child.
Is there any way to keep a mother from visiting her beloved child? No, we can't keep Mary out of our lives. She loves us too much. Our decision is whether or not to welcome her. Mary was rejected by the innkeepers in Bethlehem (Lk 2:7), and is still rejected by some Christians today. "Open wide your hearts" (2 Cor 6:13) to the mother of Jesus. Let Mary visit and love you.
Prayer: Jesus, may I love and welcome Mary as You do.
Promise: "You have no further misfortune to fear." —Zep 3:15
Presentation Ministries
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Abandonment to Divine Providence
- by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
CHAPTER II. THE DIVINE ACTION WORKS UNCEASINGLY FOR THE SANCTIFICATION OF SOULS.
SECTION XI. Everything is Supernaturalised by the Divine Action
The divine action incites souls to aim at the most eminent sanctity; all that is required on the part of the soul is abandonment to this action.
It is only from want of knowing how to make use of the divine action that so many Christians pass their lives in anxiously pursuing a multitude of methods which might prove useful if ordained by this divine action, but which by preventing a simple union with it, become positively harmful. All this multiplicity fails to impart that which can only be found in the principle of all life, that which is continually
present with us, and which stamps each of its tools with a character of its own and makes it work with an incomparable fitness. Jesus is sent to us as a Master to whom we do not sufficiently attend. He speaks to every heart, and to each He utters the word of life, the only word applicable to us, but we do not hear it. We want to know what He has said to others and do not listen when He speaks to ourselves. We do not sufficiently regard things as having been supernaturalised by the divine action.
We should always accept them with the perfect confidence they merit; with an open mind and with generosity, and be sure that nothing will harm those who act thus. This vast activity, which is in itself ever the same from the beginning to the end of time, is employed with every moment, pouring its immensity and virtue on the souls which adore it, love it, and rejoice in it alone.
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