Contemplative in the Mud

The Visitation

1–2 minutes

Benjamin Embley

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2 comments on The Visitation
The Visitation sketched by Charles de Foucauld
The Visitation sketched by Charles de Foucauld

When it comes up in the Rosary, this is one of my favourite meditations: the Visitation.

Mary receives joyful news that God is with her. What does she do? After a while, she goes and spends some time with Elizabeth. She carries Jesus to someone else; then she stays and helps and just lives with that person.

This is how Blessed Charles de Foucauld put it:

Mary set out to sanctify Saint John, to proclaim the Good News, to evangelize him and to sanctify him, not with words but by bringing Jesus to him in his home, in silence…

It’s the story of some of our seemingly pointless, hum-drum lives writ large by God: “Living like this is not pointless; just be there; just be with people and with me; my own Mother did it. Think about this for a while, and pray.”

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Benjamin Embley

With backgrounds in engineering (BSc PhD) and philosophy (MA), Ben has lived and worked in England, France, and Thailand and is now back home as a settler in the unceded traditional territory of the Wabanaki peoples in Canada. He is a Laudato Si’ Animator and currently studying an MTS Peace & Justice in Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.

2 responses to “The Visitation”

  1. amadeus617 Avatar
    amadeus617

    The passage concludes that Mary stayed for 3 months and went home. But Luke says it was the 6th month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy when Gabriel went to Mary. That would mean that Mary was there at the end of Elizabeth’s 9 months. Point is, I believe that in the culture Mary was the midwife for the delivery of John the Baptist. Maybe a pious thought, but the customs and the culture would support it. The birth of John is celebrated this month also..

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    1. Contemplative in the Mud Avatar
      Contemplative in the Mud

      I’ve never thought of it from this point of view before! Thank you very much. I like to think about this now.

      Reply

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