My reflection today is from The Little White Book:
“The church has celebrated the feast of the Visitation for over a thousand years.
In Luke’s gospel, Mary (who learned in the Annunciation that her kinswomen Elizabeth was six months pregnant) leaves her home in Nazareth and travels south to ‘the hill country’, a trip of about 90 miles. The town is never named, but an old tradition places it at Ain Karim, about five miles west of Jerusalem.
Elizabeth speaks the first beatitude in Luke’s gospel: ‘Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.’
In response Mary speaks her Magnificat which is part of the Church’s evening prayer every single day of the year.”