Greetings, Magnifying, and Mercy, Luke 1:39-56

After the angel appeared to Mary, she went immediately to visit her relative Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s greeting and Mary’s response tell us a great deal about the reality of the babies in their wombs. We also learn a great deal about the God of promise that is bringing about his promises through them.

Image: La Visitation, miniature des Heures Huth, Master of the Houghton Miniatures, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Image location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Visitation._Mary_and_Elizabeth_in_the_garden_of_a_country_house_-_Huth_Hours_(1485-1490),_f.66v_-_BL_Add_MS_38126.jpg

Advent Confrontation: Bearing the Son of God to the World, Luke 1:39-56

When the Virgin Mary visited her aged relative Elizabeth, both women were filled with the Holy Spirit and uttered astonishing words of praise for the one that the Virgin was carrying. St. Mary is truly the God-bearer because she is carrying God himself in the flesh in her womb and thus bears the Son of God into the world for the world’s sake.

Image: The Visitation, photo by Lawrence OP, Detail from a tapestry dating to c. 1450-75, believed to have been made by a Dominican nun in Switzerland. The tapestry is part of the Burrell Collection in Glasgow. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. Image location: https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/7306904510

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