Yesterday, in the Western lung of the Catholic Church, we heard the beautiful scripture verses many of you know to be the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Gospel reading for the Fourth Week of Advent. For today’s “Mondays with Mary”, I want to share with some of the previous blog posts I have written on the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. However, before I do that, let’s see what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says on the topic as well as Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.

The Catechism states in paragraph 495,

Called in the Gospels “the mother of Jesus”, Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as “the mother of my Lord”. In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father’s eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly “Mother of God” (Theotokos).

And paragraph 2677 states,

Holy Mary, Mother of God: With Elizabeth we marvel, “And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Because she gives us Jesus, her son, Mary is Mother of God and our mother; we can entrust all our cares and petitions to her: she prays for us as she prayed for herself: “Let it be to me according to your word.” By entrusting ourselves to her prayer, we abandon ourselves to the will of God together with her: “Thy will be done.”

Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death: By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the “Mother of Mercy,” the All-Holy One. We give ourselves over to her now, in the Today of our lives. And our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender “the hour of our death” wholly to her care. May she be there as she was at her son’s death on the cross. May she welcome us as our mother at the hour of our passing to lead us to her son, Jesus, in paradise.

Visitation, Oil on Canvas. For more from Steve Bird, visit his website – http://www.stevebirdart.com

In his book, The World’s First Love: Mary, Mother of God, Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen states,

“One of the most beautiful moments in history was that when pregnancy met pregnancy – when childbearers became the first heralds of the King of Kings. All pagan religions begin with the teachings of adults, but Christianity begins with the birth of a Child…”

To read more about the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I would encourage you to check out the five blog posts I have written previously –
“Mondays with Mary” – Pope Benedict on the ‘Visitation of Mary’

“Mondays with Mary” – St. Francis de Sales on the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

“Mondays with Mary” – The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

“Mondays with Mary”- The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Take 2

“Mondays with Mary” – ‘Bringing Jesus to Others’

As we joyfully anticipate Christmas, which is only 4 days away, let ask Mary to help us come to know Jesus more in our every day lives, and that she, as she brought him in her womb to Elizabeth, may continue to bring Him to us and lead us to Him in this life and the life to come.