Feast of the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth. Read more
Feast of the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Luke 1,39-56
Mary set out at that time and went as quickly as she could into the hill country to a town in Judah. She went into Zechariah's house and greeted Elizabeth. Now it happened that as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, 'Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? Look, the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.' And Mary said: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour; because he has looked upon the humiliation of his servant. Yes, from now onwards all generations will call me blessed, for the Almighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name, and his faithful love extends age after age to those who fear him. He has used the power of his arm, he has routed the arrogant of heart. He has pulled down princes from their thrones and raised high the lowly. He has filled the starving with good things, sent the rich away empty. He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his faithful love -according to the promise he made to our ancestors -- of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants for ever. Mary stayed with her some three months and then went home.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Catholic Church and the Anglican Church today commemorate Mary?s visitation to Elizabeth. The Gospel we have heard proclaims this event to us. After hearing from the angel that Elizabeth was pregnant, Mary immediately travels to see her. “With haste,” Luke writes. We could say that the Gospel always hurries us; it pushes us to go beyond our habits, our worries, and our thoughts in order to go ahead and care about others. And how many thoughts must Mary have had just after the Word of God had completely turned her life upside down! The Gospel makes us rise from our tired habits, and pushes us to go and be near those who suffer and those who are in need, like the elderly Elizabeth who was facing a difficult pregnancy. As soon as she saw Mary come into the house, Elizabeth rejoiced deeply, even in her very womb. It is the joy that the weak and poor feel when they are visited by the servants - the men and women of the Lord - those “who believe that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to them by the Lord.” The Word of God, when it is welcome creates a new alliance in the world, an unusual alliance between the disciples of the Gospel and the poor. Mary has become the first of the believers. She appears from the start marked by the blessedness of the one who listens to the Word of God. It is the Gospel?s first beatitude, as Luke writes: “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” Mary?s happiness, as the first disciple of the Gospel, is expressed in the Magnificat, a song that manifests the joy of a poor girl from a lost village at the periphery of the empire when she realizes that the Lord of heaven and earth has stooped down to her, his poor servant. Mary does not deem herself worthy of consideration, as each one of us generally claims for him/herself. She knows that everything comes to her from God and that her greatness and strength are from God: the same God who freed Israel, who has protected the poor, who has humbled the proud and has filled the hungry with good things; he has stooped down to her and loved her. And she has received him in her heart. From that day on, through her, God has put his dwelling in our midst.
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
