Joseph carries a flask of wine. Zacharias waits in the doorway; After a lifetime of barrenness, Elizabeth and Zacharias were blessed with child six months before the Annunciation to Mary; their child ...

This is reflected in the opening prayer and the prayer over the gifts and in the canticle antiphons ... The thrust of chapters one and two of Luke's Gospel is not simply a family event between ...

Everything in the visitation scene is motion and excitement: Mary's haste, her greeting to Elizabeth, John's leaping for joy ... She helps us to understand the following prayer to Jesus: If I am ...

Christians are called to follow Mary's example by responding to God's love with action, reaching out to others instead of withdrawing from the world.