As the joyous season of Advent approaches, we are honored to present a reflection on the Visitation, written by Fr. Paul Conner, O.P., Associate Professor of theology at Providence College. Fr. Conner’s further considerations of Mary and womanhood will appear in Light and Life during the New Year.

In every mystery of the Rosary we discover what Pope John Paul II happily identified as "the feminine genius." Mary is the perfection of womanhood, and the Rosary allows us to consider each mystery from her point of view. The second Joyful Mystery, the Visitation, related in Luke’s gospel (1:39-56), is a fruitful point of departure for such discovery.

Mary set out and traveled... in haste.... [She] entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth... Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out, ..."most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb...."
And Mary said: "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior...."

In this account, Mary and Elizabeth portray women at their best. Each (one a virgin, the other infertile) is open and responsive to God, trusting He can give new life. This wondrous gift was a singular opportunity for these women, and each accepted it in a way that drew out of her womanly potential the myriad admirable qualities of motherhood.

Only a woman can know the unique joy and gratitude for the gift of life, and the growing experience of it in her womb, and throughout her - and her child’s - years. Only women can become the most revered members of families and societies, not seeking their own good, but through the self-giving that motherhood requires.

As we examine the qualities of Mary and Elizabeth shining forth in St. Luke’s story of the Visitation, amazing faith and trust form the womanly starting point. Each believed God could make her pregnant beyond the limitations of nature, and each believed God would act if they but trusted. But who were these women? The simplest of beings: unknown villagers, of a minor race, living in the poorest of settings, one unmarried, the other past menopause! Yet God spoke, and they believed. Men are not so apt to grant God this trust!

Mary was so attuned to the Holy Spirit she sensed the possible in the impossible - that after a lifetime of sterility her aunt was indeed pregnant. Elizabeth was so attuned to the Spirit she sensed that Mary, though a virgin, was pregnant, and with the Lord Himself.

The most sensitive feminine openness to the Holy Spirit led each woman to join in the other’s virtuous response to grace. St. Luke tells us Mary walked in haste more than 90 miles, from Nazareth to the hill country of Ain Karim, knowing her elderly aunt would need help in the latter part of her pregnancy. What a lack of self regard this shows, for Mary herself was pregnant, with a Child she must guard to the utmost!

Should not heaven and earth bow before her whom God had so singled out? Should Mary not expect Elizabeth to attend to her? Mary, rather than thinking of herself, gave of herself, and served Elizabeth for three months.

Elizabeth, too, rose to the virtue of the feminine genius. In her society, an elder woman was honored by a younger, and Elizabeth has experienced God's special favor by becoming pregnant in old age. Should she not expect her young niece to lavish respect and congratulations upon her? But at Mary's visitation, Elizabeth experienced both the revelation of the Holy Spirit and the joy of her own infant son, and her expectations were in no way self-concerned. Instead, she needed to honor Mary and her divine Child, incredulous though she was, that they would come to honor and serve her.

In the Magnificat, St. Luke records Mary's longest speech in Scripture. Responding to Elizabeth's praise for her trust in God's promise, Mary shifts the focus to praise of God's greatness and kindness. She glorifies God for gracing her and all future generations, for casting down the proud and mighty, while lifting up the humble; for filling the hungry, while allowing the rich and oppressive to end up empty-handed.

In this mystery of Mary's visitation to Elizabeth we discover signature qualities of womanhood lived at its best. How beautiful this feminine portrait is, an utter delight to any man's deepest heart, and a pure joy to its Creator. These two women display limitless faith and trust in God, utter openness to the inspirations and actions of the Holy Spirit, a humble and loving focus on God and others over self-interest, and profound joy and gratitude at the opportunity of motherhood.

We should notice how the qualities that are special gifts to women, and with which women infuse family and social life, are fast becoming counter-cultural; the media's pictures of woman are starkly the opposite on every point. Let us pray that women, old and young, will look to Mary - and to Christian saints like Elizabeth - to see their best potential activated, and find role models for their own growth as persons.

In the last issue of Light and Life we mentioned two new CDs available from The Rosary Center, "Is the Catholic Church the One, True Church?" and "Mary, the New Eve." We are now pleased to announce a third CD, "Eros in the thought of Pope Benedict XVI."

The three CDs are reflections by Fr. Robert Christian, O.P., Assistant Dean of the theological faculty at the Dominican’s international seminary in Rome. You will find these CDs, together with many other gift ideas, in our on-line secure order page.

The Rosary Confraternity Memorial Education Fund continues to grow, and with it grows our friends’ influence on the life of the next generation of Dominican students preparing to preach the Good News of Mary’s Rosary. If you are considering end-of-year charitable gifts, we beg you to keep the Memorial Education Fund in mind, and if you are making or changing your estate plans, please include the Education Fund among your bequests. Income from the Fund will carry your kindness far into the future of Dominican life and ministry.

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