I am writing this reflection on May 31st, the Feast that celebrates the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I remember many years ago sitting down at supper with my sister and parents. I mentioned that a seminarian I know was being assigned to Visitation parish in Elmhurst. My sister said, “What’s that? A parish named “visitation?” She thought it was funny and strange, for she didn’t understand what “visitation” was.
I have always had a deep love and devotion the Mary, the Mother of God. As a boy, I loved going with my mom to the statue of Mary in our church as she helped me light a candle. Mary became a spiritual mother to me, as she is to every human being who ever lived, is living or will come to live.
After surrendering to the power of the Holy Spirit, allowing the conception of the Savior of the world to take place within her very womb, she went IN HASTE to “visit” her cousin Elizabeth who was very, very pregnant, she who was thought to be “barren.” Mary didn’t sit there navel gazing after Gabriel’s “visit” to her. She went out of herself and into the life of her cousin who needed help in her own pregnancy. Two powerful women, pregnant, came together and changed the world.
Visits aré important, even life changing. Who might God be calling you to visit?