The Life of Mary: Visitation (Elizabeth's Perspective)©

The charts below are direct quotes from Post-Vatican II Magisterial Documents concerning the theme, Mary's Life, Elizabeth's Perspective. These teachings of the Catholic Church may prove useful to include in talks, in homilies or for research. For the full title and document data, click on the abbreviation code (for example, BYM leads you to the document, Behold Your Mother). This will also lead you to the complete document on this website or assist you in locating it elsewhere.

For an index of the documents used in the study see: List of Magisterial Documents
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Documents	VI. The Life of Mary / 2d. Sacred Scripture: New Testament Elements Infancy: Visitation (Elizabeth's Perspective)
Lumen Gentium, 1964	is greeted by [Elizabeth] as blessed because of her [Mary's] belief in the promise (cf. Lk 1:41-45) 57
Behold Your Mother (USA), 1973	Elizabeth's words, "Blessed is the fruit of your womb," are true in a real sense of every unborn child. 132
Gaudete in Domino, 1975	No one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord. The great joy announced by the angel on Christmas night is truly for all the people, both for the people of Israel then anxiously awaiting a Savior, and for the numberless people made up of all those who, in time to come, would receive its message and strive to live by it. The blessed Virgin Mary was the first to have received its announcement, from the angel Gabriel, and her Magnificat was already the exultant hymn of all the humble. # "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior...henceforth all generations will call me blessed." (Lk 1:46-8) #
Redemptoris Mater, 1987	Visitation [the majority of quotes refer to Elizabeth's words] [Articles 12-15: Visitation. Discussed as an event in salvation history, Mary's charitable service, witness to faith] "And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Lk. 1:43) Elizabeth bears witness to Mary: she recognizes and proclaims that before her stands the Mother of the Lord, the Mother of the Messiah. The son whom Elizabeth is carrying in her womb also shares in this witness: "The babe in my womb leaped for joy." (Lk. 1:44) 12 While every word of Elizabeth's greeting is filled with meaning, her final words would seem to have fundamental importance: "And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord." (Lk. 1:45) (28) These words can be linked with the title "full of grace" of the angel's greeting. 12 Elizabeth first called Mary "blessed" because of "the fruit of her womb," and then she called her "blessed" because of her faith. (cf. Lk. 1:42, 45) 35 [See also 37]
The VM in Intellectual and Spiritual Formation, 1988	The encyclical Redemptoris Mater ... a prolonged meditation on the exclamation of Elizabeth, "Blessed is she who believed." (LK 1:45) 17
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994 Fidei Depositum, 1992	[See also: 148] 495 ... Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as "the mother of my Lord." (Lk 1:43f)
Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 2002	The Rosary is one of the traditional paths of Christian prayer directed to the contemplation of Christ's face. Pope Paul VI described it in these words: "As a Gospel prayer, centered on the mystery of the redemptive Incarnation, the Rosary is a prayer with a clearly Christological orientation. Its most characteristic element, in fact, the litany-like succession of Hail Mary's, becomes in itself an unceasing praise of Christ, who is the ultimate object both of the Angel's announcement and of the greeting of the Mother of John the Baptist: 'Blessed is the fruit of your womb'. (Lk 1:42) 18 Exultation is the keynote of the encounter with Elizabeth, where the sound of Mary's voice and the presence of Christ in her womb cause John to "leap for joy." (cf. Lk 1:44). 20 By making our own the words of the Angel Gabriel and Saint Elizabeth contained in the Hail Mary, we find ourselves constantly drawn to seek out afresh in Mary, in her arms and in her heart, the "blessed fruit of her womb." (cf. Lk 1:42) 24 Yet when the Hail Mary is properly understood, we come to see clearly that its Marian character is not opposed to its Christological character, but that it actually emphasizes and increases it. The first part of the Hail Mary, drawn from the words spoken to Mary by the Angel Gabriel and by Saint Elizabeth, is a contemplation in adoration of the mystery accomplished in the Virgin of Nazareth. 33
Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 2003	"Blessed is she who believed." (Lk 1:45) Mary also anticipated, in the mystery of the incarnation, the Church's Eucharistic faith. When, at the Visitation, she bore in her womb the Word made flesh, she became in some way a "tabernacle" the first "tabernacle" in history in which the Son of God, still invisible to our human gaze, allowed himself to be adored by Elizabeth, radiating his light as it were through the eyes and the voice of Mary. 55

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