The Visitation shows us the effects of the Spirit, Mary: Day 210

The Visitation shows us the effects of the Spirit

St. Frances de Sales points out how the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth dem- onstrates the effects of the Holy Spirit’s presence and activity.

Our Lady went to visit St. Elizabeth; but this visit was not useless nor like those which women of the world very often make solely for ceremony, to testify the deepest affections which they do not feel, and during them they fre- quently gossip about each other so that they come away with guilty consciences. Our Lady’s visitation was not like this, for she went to serve her cousin. Their conversations were far from idle—rather, my God, how holy, pious, and devout! That visit filled the whole family of Zechariah with the Holy Spirit. Now the principal effects of the Holy Spirit are those which he produced in St. Elizabeth; you can easily understand this if you have also received him.

The first thing St. Elizabeth did was to humble herself profoundly for, see- ing the Virgin, she exclaimed, “But who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me? This is the first fruit of the grace of God, humility. When grace visits the soul, it inclines itself to efface itself in the awareness of the divine Goodness and its own nothingness and deficiency. Secondly, Elizabeth said: “O how blest is she who trusted!” And then: “Blest are you among women, and blest is the fruit of your womb.” By this you see the second effect of the Holy Spirit is to make us remain firm in the faith and to confirm that of others; then to return to God, acknowledging that he is the source of all graces.

In the third place, Elizabeth said that her baby leapt in her womb for joy; and this is the third mark of the visit of the Holy Spirit—interior conversion, the change to a better life. St. John was sanctified; likewise whoever received the Holy Spirit is wholly transformed in God. If, then, you wish to know if you have received him, examine your works, for it is by them that we know the answer. —St. Francis de Sales, Sermon for the Feast of the Visitation

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
Do I see in my own life the effects of the Holy Spirit’s presence and activity that St. Francis points out? Do I try to imitate these qualities of Mary?

CLOSING PRAYER
From a prayer of Blessed Raymond Jordano: You, most sweet Virgin, have found grace with God, for you were preserved from the stain of original sin, were filled with the Holy Spirit, and conceived the Son of God. Most humble Virgin, you received all these graces not for yourself only, but also for us, so that you might assist us in all our needs.

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