2. The Visitation
Mary set out and traveled to the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabethand the infant leaped inher womb. Elizabeth, cried out in aloud voice, "Most Blessed are you among Women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." (Lk 1:39-45) ...
  1. Elizabeth conceived a son in her old age... for nothing is impossible with God.
  2. Charity prompts Mary to hasten to visit Elizabeth in the hour of her need.
  3. The journey to Elizabeth's home is about eighty miles requiring four or five days.
  4. Though long and arduous, the journey is joyous, for Mary bears with her the son of God.
  5. At Mary's salutation, John the Baptist is sanctified in his mother's womb.
  6. Elizabeth exclaims: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb."
  7. "How have I deserved that the mother of my Lord should come to me?"
  8. "Blessed is she who believed that the Lord's words to her would be fulfilled."
  9. Mary: "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit finds joy in God."
  10. Mary serves her cousin in all humility until the birth of John the Baptist.