The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary celebrates the journey of Mary, newly become the Mother of God, into the hill country of Judea to visit her kinswoman Elizabeth, who in her old age had conceived a son, John the Baptist. As related in the Gospel of Luke, when Mary entered the house and greeted her, the infant leapt for joy in Elizabeth's womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out, "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb."

To this greeting Mary responded with the great hymn of praise the Church sings each evening, the Magnificat — "My soul magnifies the Lord" — in which she rejoices in God her Savior and proclaims his mercy to the lowly and his faithfulness to his promises. The feast, which honors this meeting of the two mothers and the sanctification of the unborn Baptist, is fittingly placed on 31 May, between the Annunciation in March and the birth of John the Baptist in June, and it invites the faithful to carry Christ to others as Mary did.