"And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?"

                                     http://www.itsgila.com/highlightsmary.htm 


This month I am to meditate/ reflect / ponder on the Second Joyful Mystery - the "Visitation" ! Well, that was an inspired message I received from a holy priest. He asked me to make Bl. Mother  my friend, and to ask her to visit my home too, just as she visited St. Elizabeth....
 I thought I'll meditatate on Ein Karem today,  .This is the village mentioned in the Bible,  -  "Mary went into the hill country, to a city of Judah"(Luke 1). Ein Karem means "Spring of the Vineyard"

Ein Karem  is a village on the West side of Jerusalem. Though there are five important Churches in this area I think I will concentrate  the Church of Visitation.

Mosaic on the exterior of the Ein Karem Church of the Visitation, located 5 miles (8 kilometers) west of the center of Jerusalem

http://www.truelove.org/ucbooks/Historical_Christ/index.htm
  The Visitation Church is a Fransiscan Church, designed by Antonio Barluzzi, the Italian architect, built in 1955. The ancient santuary was built on a rock declivity, venerated as the "stone in which St. John the baptist was concealed according to the Protoevangelium of St. James.This was the place where the summer house of St.Elizabeth and St. Zechariah was located.   
  There is a crypt which marks the house, where Mary greeted Elizabeth, and there is an upper chapel dedicated to Mary. In the crypt, there is a grotto which has a well; its spring came into being at the time Mary uttered the great "Magnificat" , when Elizabeth greeted her.



There is a painting on the wall which depicts this "meeting". 
Outside in the main court yard there is a statue of Mary and Elizabeth with the backdrop of the wall where the Magnificat is scripted in 57 languages . 
        By describing this episode in the Gospel, St. Luke wants us to grasp how in this 'joyful mystery'  the grace of Incarnation, after filling Mary, is being imparted to the neighbours; how the joy of Salvation is brought to Elizabeth's house. From the very moment when God became Man, in His very embryonic stage itself, He draws Mary to "rise up" and to go "in haste" to give the world its Saviour!!! Bl.John Paul II says that Mary's visit to the hill country , to the city of  Judah "is a prelude to Jesus' Mission", and it also shows Mary's readiness to cooperate with the Creator in bringing Redemption to the world.When in a joyful burst Mary greeted Elizabeth, lo the child within Elizabeth's womb leaps for joy because of the infilling of the Holy Spirit. And Elizabeth too experiences the messianic joy and she too utters the mystery revealed instantly by the presence of the Messiah:  " Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of they womb..." 
Pope John Paul II explains the Catechesis of Visitation in "VISITATION IS PRELUDE TO JESUS’ MISSION" 
http://www.passionistnuns.org/Saints/StElizabethVisitation/index.htm

In view of Mary's excellence, Elizabeth also understands what an honor her visit is for her: "And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Lk 1:43). With the expression "my Lord", Elizabeth recognizes the royal, indeed messianic, dignity of Mary's Son. In the Old Testament this expression was in fact used to address the king (cf. 1 Kgs 1:13,20,21 etc.) and to speak of the Messiah King(Ps 110:1).   The angel had said of Jesus: "The Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David" (Lk 1:32). "Filled with the Holy Spirit", Elizabeth has the same insight. Later, the paschal glorification of Christ will reveal the sense in which this title is to be understood, that is, a transcendent sense (cf. Jn 20 28; Acts 2:34-36).

In its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) , #57, the Second Vatican Council states: 

“This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ’s virginal conception up to his death; first when Mary, arising in haste to go to visit Elizabeth, is greeted by her as blessed because of her belief in the promise of salvation and the precursor leaped with joy in the womb of his mother.” 

 In Redemptoris Mater, #12, Pope John Paul II wrote: 

“Moved with charity, therefore, Mary goes to the house of her kinswoman.... While every word of Elizabeth is filled with meaning, her final words would seem to have a fundamental importance: ‘And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her from the Lord’ (Lk 1:45). These words can be linked with the title ‘full of grace’ of the angel’s greeting. Both of these texts reveal an essential Mariological content, namely, the truth about Mary who has become really present in the mystery of Christ because she ‘has believed,’ the fullness of grace announced by the angel means the gift of God himself. Mary’s faith proclaimed by Elizabeth indicated how the Virgin of Nazareth responded to this gift.

The Visitation
by Pope John Paul II. http://www.madonnahouse.org/restoration/2011/05/the_visitation.html

Even before Jesus was born, Mary was a vehicle through whom people encountered him.When Elizabeth greeted Mary, she (Elizabeth) in no way separated Mother and Son. Rather did she associate them intimately, for she said, and blessed is the fruit of your womb (Lk 1:43)….

Let us reflect: What is the meaning of Mary’s presence in that house in the hill country of Judea? Was she there only through kindness and thoughtfulness for her kinswoman who had conceived a son in her old age?Was it purely a human act of assistance?No. It was a much more significant and spiritually fruitful presence, because Mary brought her cousin the incomparable gifts of grace, joy, and light, associating the future Precursor with this bearing of gifts to his mother.

The moment Mary’s greeting sounded in her ears, the old woman not only felt the child leap in her womb, but she was also filled with the Holy Spirit and felt strengthened.Nor was that all: through illumination of that Spirit who had penetrated her, she above all acquired the superior capacity to see the very Mother of her Lord in her young cousin.

My Prayer: Bl. Mother, come into my home too, as you went to your cousin Elizabeth's. Just as you brought the elderly woman, "the incomporable gifts of grace, joy, and light" ..., so too bring to my home too those same gifts so that the darkness within the recesses, nooks and corners of this home be transformed in the dazzling Light of your Blessed Presence. Thus illuminated, let your presence make it possible for the Holy Spirit to penetrate into our very being with His seven fold Gifts, so that we too shall be strengthened, and acquire the sublime Wisdom of God. Aren't you the Lady Wisdom prefigured in the Old Testament? 
Come Mary, come. 
Be with us Mary along the way, guide every step we take.......