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The Forward Day by Day Meditation for May 31, 2016

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TUESDAY, May 31 The Feast of the Visitation

Luke 1:39-40 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

It is not the most logical thing for a pregnant young woman to trek to the Judean hill country. Then again, given that Mary has been visited by an angel and told she will give birth to the Son of God, logic left the party long ago.

The Feast of the Visitation is a beautiful celebration commemorating the relationship between two women, one younger and one older, both becoming mothers of men who will change the world.

Those births, however, are not the point right now. Right now, we are asked to marvel at the rejoicing these two women share in each other’s news. Right now, we are asked to hear Mary’s song of praise and feel Elizabeth cry with elation as the baby in her womb leaps with joy. Right now, we are asked to be present to the holiness of relationship.

After all, our faith is one of loving relationship: our relationship with God, our relationship with each other, and our relationship with ourselves. On this day, we celebrate the sacrament of loving relationship.

PRAY for the Diocese of Connecticut (Province I, The Episcopal Church)

Today the Church remembers The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Ps 113; 1 Samuel 2:1-10; Romans 12:9-16b; Luke 1:39-57