In that mystery [of the Visitation], two women go about the ordinary tasks of daily life – a young pregnant girl visits her elder pregnant cousin. Mary carries within her God’s own life. In the course of her visit, the transforming work of love which has begun in her becomes active.
In her visit, Mary recapitulates God’s visitation to her. The moment of that first visitation, as the angel announced the incarnation, was seen by [St. Francis] de Sales as God’s kiss to humanity. Mary’s visit to Elizabeth reenacts that loving visit. And, as love is generative, the divine life hidden within is quickened and the work of transforming love goes on. Not only does Mary grow in grace, but, through her visitation, so do Elizabeth and John the Baptist and Zachariah and Joseph... Their hearts too are transformed into the heart that goes out to them in love.
At the Visitation, Mary’s heartbeat beat in rhythm with the heart of God nestled in her womb. As Love gave itself to her, so she gives of herself. Her heart causes all hearts around her to be drawn into the divine rhythm.
--Dr. Wendy Wright, “Saint Francis de Sales
and the Conception of the Virgin Mary”
Image source: Philippe de Champaigne, The Visitation (ca. 1643-1648), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philippe_de_Champaigne_-_The_Visitation_-_y1994-17_-_Princeton_University_Art_Museum.jpg
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