Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, July 2, 2006

COLLECT.
Let us pray.We beseech thee, O Lord, pour into our hearts the abundance of thy heavenly grace : that like as the child-bearing of the Blessed Virgin Mary was unto us thy servants the beginning of salvation, so the devout observance of her Visitation may avail for the increasing of our peace. Through the same thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who livest and reignest with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

The Lesson is taken from a Sermon by St. John Chrysostom.

As soon as our Redeemer was come among us, he went with haste, while as yet he was in his mother's womb, to visit his friend John. And John, in the one womb, as if conscious of the presence of Jesus in the other womb, dashed himself impatiently against the narrow walls of his natural prison, as though crying out : I perceive the very Lord that gave nature her bounds! Why therefore should I wait for the due season of my birth? What need is there for me to linger here till nine months are ended, now that the Timeless One is with me! I would break out of my dark cell! I would proclaim my manifold knowledge of marvellous things! I am meant to be a sign, and so even now I would shew that the Christ is here! I am the trumpet-voice, and I desire to peal forth the news that the Son of God is come in the flesh. Let me sound as a trumpet, and bless and loose my father's tongue, and make it speak again! Let me sound as a trumpet and quicken my mother's womb!

Thou seest, O brethren beloved, how new and how strange a mystery is here! John is not yet born, but by leaping he speaketh. He is as yet unseen, but he giveth warning. He is not yet able to cry, but by his acts he beareth witness. He draweth not yet the breath of life, but he preacheth God. He seeth not yet the light, but he maketh known the Sun. He is not yet come out of the womb, but he hasteth to play the Forerunner. In the presence of the Lord he cannot restrain himself, but rebelleth against the bounds set by nature, and struggleth to break out of the prisoning womb, eager to herald the coming Saviour. He saith, as it were : Behold, the Deliverer cometh, and why am I yet in bonds, and made to abide here? The Word cometh, that he may set right all things, and am I still to tarry in prison? I would go forth! I would run before him, and proclaim to all mankind : Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.

But do thou tell us, O John, how it came to pass that while thou wast still in the darkness of thy mother's womb, thou didst see and hear? How didst thou behold the things of God? How didst thou leap and bound for joy? If we could hear him answer, he would say : Great is the mystery of that which here taketh place. Beyond the understanding of men are these doings! It is meet that I should shew forth a new thing in nature for the sake of him who is making new things which are beyond nature. Even though I be yet in the womb, I perceive, for forth upon me from another womb the Sun of Righteousness shineth. As it were, with mine ears I understand, for I was created to be the Voice of the Great Word. I would cry aloud, for I contemplate the only-begotten Son of the Father clothed in flesh. I tremble for joy, for I perceive that he, by whom all things were made, hath taken upon him the form of a servant. I leap as I think of the Redeemer of the world being made flesh, for I would run before his coming. Nonetheless, I herald his approach unto you as best I can, and make on this wise my confession of him whose Forerunner I am.

We must here consider that the greater cometh unto the lesser, in order to help the lesser : Mary unto Elisabeth, Christ unto John. And again afterwards, that he might sanctify John's baptisms, the Lord came unto him to be baptized. And quickly were these blessings of Mary's coming, and of the divine presence, made manifest. Have regard here to the distinction made, and to the special weight of every word. Elisabeth was the first to hear the voice of Mary's salutation, but John was the first to receive the grace. She heard it by natural means, but he leaped by reason of the mystery. She hailed the coming of Mary, he that of the Lord. Mary and Elisabeth spake words full of grace, but Jesus and John worked unseen within, and did enter upon this mystery of godliness as their mothers met one another. And so by twin miracles the mothers prophesied from the spirit of their unborn offspring. The babe John leaped, and the mother was filled with the Holy Ghost. The mother was not filled before her son, but when the son was filled with the Holy Ghost, he filled his mother also.

And whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? That is to say, how cometh it to pass that so great a good should befall me, as that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? I feel the wonder, I acknowledge the mystery ; the Mother of my Lord, pregnant with the Word, is full of God. And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house. It is meet to record how Mary shewed this kindness, and abode this mystic number of months. ¶ She tarried long, not only for friendship's sake, but also for the good of the great Prophet. For if the first coming of Mary so blessed him, that even as a babe in the womb he leapt for joy, and his mother was filled with the Holy Ghost, what blessedness must we not deem to have flowed upon him from so long neighbourhood of Mary? Thus was the Prophet anointed, and trained by exercise like a strong wrestler, in his mother's womb, for his sinews are being braced for a hard battle.

At what time Peter and Paul were kept in the Mamertine Prison at the foot of the Tarpeian Rock, two of the gaolers, named Processus and Martinian, along with other forty, were moved by the preaching and miracles of the Apostles to believe in Christ, and were baptized in a spring which suddenly brake forth out of the rock. These men let the Apostles depart if they willed it. But Paulinus, Prefect of the soldiers, when he heard what was come to pass, strove to turn away Processus and Martinian from their purpose. And when he found that he but wasted time, he ordered their faces to be bruised and their teeth to be broken with stones. Moreover, when he had had them led to the image of Jupiter, and they still boldly answered that they would not worship the gods, he caused them to be tormented on the rack, and white-hot plates of metal to be put to their flesh, and that they should be beaten with sticks. Whileas they were suffering all these things they were heard to say only this one word : Blessed be the Name of the Lord. They were afterwards cast into prison, and in a little while they were taken outside the city, and slain with the axe, upon the Aurelian Way. The Lady Lucina buried their bodies upon her own farm, upon the 2nd day of July, but they were afterwards brought into the City, and are buried in the Basilica of the Prince of the Apostles.

from the Anglican Breviary, Matins.