The Second Saturday: The Second Joyful Mystery – The Visitation of Blessed Mary

Gospel Reading: Luke 1:39-56

MEDITATION

1. The grace of the Holy Spirit does not allow delay: it seeks a faithful answer and demands ready action. And Mary, obedient to the motions of the Holy Spirit, immediately offers her reply to God.

As soon as she has conceived the Redeemer of mankind in her womb, she is prompt in satisfying His desire, that of helping the human race and of destroying sin.

God desired to sanctify John the Forerunner fettered by original sin, to manifest the glory and power of his Son from the very moment of his Incarnation, and to fill the two courageous mothers with new joy and new grace. Mary, full of love of God and of her neighbour, notwithstanding the hard journey, the difficult roads, her young age, the fragility of her sex, her present condition of Mother of God’s son, promptly sets out from her humble home of Nazareth in Galilee and undertakes this long and rough journey all the way to the mountains of Judea.

My soul, how many worthy inspirations have you smothered in yourself, to which the special designs of God were perhaps bound, for his glory, your salvation and the good of your neighbour.

Behold: Elizabeth, already advanced in years, is expecting a child. She is in need of a friend who may assist and comfort her. And the loving Virgin who in love and beauty surpasses the Seraphim, does not delay in responding, does not sluggishly set out on her journey, but in haste. Love of her neighbour strongly urges her on. God’s love, when it reigns in our heart, is never idle. It always excites the soul to doing good for others, without regard for our own apprehensions; for indeed, love of God and of one’s neighbour is one and the same love, which turns now to the cause, now to the effects; now to the creator, now to the creature.

This virtue alone guides and animates Mary, and not love of pleasure or distraction, not the desire to see and be seen, that curiosity and ostentation which, to say the least, are often the reasons behind the visits we make. O my soul, imitate this true and fervent love of Mary; become humbled and confess that you possess not the true love of God.

O my divine Mother, Mother of love, show your abundant love to me also; have pity on me, a most miserable creature, who have so often resisted God. Inflame me with your holy love, force me with your chains to love God above all things, and my neighbour as myself.

2. O how many virtues along this journey of Mary’s! Observe her profound humility which does not permit her to consider the importance of her dignity and the infinite difference between the Son whom she bears and Elizabeth’s! The Handmaid of the Lord knows not those reservations of the nobility, those bizarre laws which the world’s vanity wishes to scrupulously observe and which love of self has imagined and introduced, and demands with such severity.

Observe how Mary greeted Elizabeth. True love anticipates the other’s wishes without any worldly interest. If divine love had not preceded us, and did not precede us every day, would we have known God? Would we think of Him?…

To Mary’s greeting, to this voice which has become the organ of God’s Word, there follows the greatest of all miracles: Jesus, from his Mother’s womb, sanctifies the soul of John who leaps for joy in the womb of his mother, and fills Elizabeth with the Holy Spirit. Christ displayed the power of his divinity first through his own Mother, and then through himself. Likewise the presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar works the most wondrous effects on true believers.

Learn, my soul, that through Mary alone may you receive what you are expecting from Heaven. The first grace communicated to humanity by the Incarnate Word was done from Mary’s womb and at her voice.

O Mother of graces, however powerful is your voice! Let it be heard in my heart, or at least let it be heard by your Son on my behalf! O Holy Virgin, how may I worthily praise and celebrate you? I shall learn from Elizabeth, and with her shall loudly exclaim as long as I live: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Lk 1:42).

How dare heresy condemn the honours we offer to the Mother of God, honours inspired by the Holy Spirit and inseparable from those we must offer to the Son?

3. Elizabeth continues: “And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43).

Elizabeth recognizes the greatness of Mary’s Son and calls him her Lord… Have we the same feelings for Jesus Christ, when He visits us? Do his divine presence and his grace in the beloved Sacrament of his Body and Blood impress on us the same transports of joy, of faith and of humility?

Elizabeth then recognizes the Mother of God in Mary through divine enlightenment, and adds: “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (Lk 1:45). All shall come to pass at the proper time.

It was then that Mary, full of light and grace, of gratitude and love, possessing a soul truly humble and faithful to the grace of her God, having been penetrated by his mercy, sang that divine song of gratitude and love, of prophecy and perfect praise of God’s attributes. She instructs us concerning the present, and prophesies what will take place with future generations regarding herself: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed” (Lk 1:46-48). She recalls the good done by God in the past: “He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts” (Lk 1:51).

She foretells the future and trust in the duration of the promises to the people of God, for centuries and centuries, till the end of time: “…from generation to generation his mercy is on those who fear him… as he spoke to Abraham and to his posterity for ever” (Lk 1:50 and 55).

My Soul, when false splendor and the illusion of human greatness allure you, acknowledge God alone as great, and attribute everything to his glory. When the enticements of pleasure attempt to seduce you, remember that in God alone there is steadfast certainty, and pure and lasting pleasure. When the poison of praises, or the tricks of self-love beguile you, return to your nothingness, and recall in your heart what Mary did not need to recall, the humiliating memory of your sins.

O Mary, from that moment you showed yourself as the true Mother of graces, and from this moment I hope, through the power of this Mystery of your Rosary, that you grant me the grace to love Jesus Christ greatly and to save my soul; for you are the universal Dispenser of graces, and therefore the Hope of everyone, and my Hope. I thank God for having made me understand that I must be saved principally through the merits of Jesus Christ and then through your intercession.

O Mary, pray for me, and recommend me to your Son. Your prayers cannot be rejected: they are the prayers of the Mother to a Son who so loves you. And furthermore you know my misery and my needs better than I, and the graces I am most in need of.

I give myself up to you, I trust in you; You must save me. Amen.

VIRTUE – Charity.

REFLECTION – Practice charity towards your neighbour by visiting hospitals or places of suffering, or sick persons or prisoners, or by helping a poor person.

In recreation and visits of courtesy speak about God. Especially help the Souls of Purgatory, by applying to them Rosaries, Communions, Masses, Indulgences, offerings and acts of mortification.The so-called “heroic act” is very useful for you and for these Souls, that is, forever offering God the merits of all of your good works, as relief for souls in purgatory.

EJACULATION – O Mary, blessed among women, visit and save my soul.