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Pentecost Season · Mary's Visitation · Year B

Luke 1:39-57

The Visitation

The Visitation with Saint Nicholas and Saint Anthony Abbot, Piero di Cosimo
The Visitation with Saint Nicholas and Saint Anthony Abbot, Piero di Cosimo, c. 1490National Gallery of Art, Washington · public domain

Overview & Insights

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Luke 1:42)

In our first two sections of Luke’s text the angel Gabriel has announced two births to mothers who should not have been expecting a baby (one too old, the other not yet married). Before the births of John and Jesus are narrated, the two families are brought together, and we have in this domestic scene an opportunity to reflect on the significance of these two special people. The unborn John and his mother recognize the superior status of Mary’s son, and Mary speaks with delight and wonder of the incredible honor of being the mother of God’s Son. The paradoxical values expressed in Mary’s song prepare the reader for the repeated challenges to the status quo that will mark Jesus’s ministry as this Gospel will describe it.

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What happens when Mary visits Elizabeth?

The child leaps in Elizabeth's womb, she blesses Mary as the mother of her Lord, and Mary answers with the Magnificat, the song of the God who lifts up the lowly.

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