Gospel (Lk 1,39-56) - In those days, Mary got up and went hastily into the hill country, to a city of Judah. Having entered Zaccarìa's house, she greeted Elizabeth. As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed in a loud voice: «Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb! What do I owe that the mother of my Lord comes to me? Behold, as soon as your greeting reached my ears, the child leaped for joy in my womb. And blessed is she who believed in the fulfillment of what the Lord told her." Then Mary said: «My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior, because he looked at the humility of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed. The Almighty has done great things for me and Holy is her name; his mercy to those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown the power of his arm, he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has overthrown the mighty from their thrones, he has exalted the humble; he has filled the hungry with good things, he has sent the rich away empty-handed. He helped Israel, he was his servant, remembering his mercy, as he had said to our fathers, for Abraham and his descendants forever." Maria stayed with her for about three months, then returned to her house.

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

Today the Church celebrates the feast of the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth. It is the meeting between two women, one young and the other older. It is a simple scene that manifests what should always happen when Christians meet: feeling the joy of being part of God's family. Christians live through encounters, relationships, friendship. Jesus who is born is a hope for everyone, for every man and for every woman, a hope that cannot be hidden, it must be announced to everyone, especially to those who no longer seem to have much hope, to those who are ill, to those who are alone , to those who are elderly and live in a thousand difficulties. Elizabeth's exultation is the same exultation that the elderly, the weak, the lonely experience every time they are visited. One could say that Christianity is meeting, visiting, caring for each other. The joy that flows from meetings is, precisely, the work of the Holy Spirit. After the tragic event of the pandemic which forced us into an unnatural, but necessary, isolation, we can better understand how vital meeting is. And how appropriate this feast of the Visitation is which sees a young woman leaving from afar to meet an elderly woman who is pregnant and therefore doubly in need of help and company. Both thus entered into the greater plan of salvation that God was weaving in humanity to save it.