21 December 2026 · Latin Rite
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“And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” Luke 1:45
Today's O Antiphon: “O Dayspring, splendour of eternal light and sun of justice: come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.” On the shortest days of the year in the northern hemisphere, the Church sings of the Sun that rises from on high. The Song of Songs gives the voice of the bride: “The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains.”
Mary, having said yes, does not stay at home. She “set out and went with haste” to the hill country to visit Elizabeth. At her greeting, John leaps in his mother's womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cries out: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb… And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” The first person to call Jesus “Lord” in Luke's Gospel is an unborn child's mother, and the first to rejoice at his presence is an unborn child. Elizabeth's last word praises Mary's faith: “Blessed is she who believed.”
Theme: “Blessed is she who believed.”
The Beloved comes; Mary hastens; the unborn John leaps for joy.
“The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills.” Song of Solomon 2:8
“In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country.” Luke 1:39
Apply: Visit someone who is lonely before Christmas.
“Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away! The LORD called me before I was born, while I was in my mother's womb he named me.” Isaiah 49:1
“When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”” Luke 1:41–42
Apply: Pray for unborn children and their mothers.
“And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness.” Genesis 15:6
“And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” Luke 1:43–45
Apply: Renew your trust in one promise of God.
Faith hurries to serve.
Christ comes, and the little ones leap for joy.
Take-home resolution: Make one visit of charity before Christmas.
Dear friends, today's O Antiphon prays: O Dayspring, splendour of eternal light and sun of justice: come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.
The Song of Songs sings of love: the voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for now the winter is past (Song of Songs 2:8, 10–11). The Church reads it in Advent as God coming to his people with the eagerness of love.
In the Gospel Mary sets out and goes with haste to the hill country, to the house of Zechariah, and greets Elizabeth. When Elizabeth hears Mary's greeting, the child leaps in her womb, and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit. She exclaims: blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And blessed is she who believed (Luke 1:39–45).
Mary carries Jesus hidden within her, and wherever she goes, joy follows. John the Baptist leaps for joy even before birth. Elizabeth is filled with the Spirit. The Visitation is the first Christmas in a way: Christ arrives at a home, and the home is transformed.
We too carry Christ, especially after Holy Communion. When we visit others with love, Christ comes with us. A visit to a sick neighbour, a lonely grandparent, a family in grief, can be a Visitation.
Elizabeth praises Mary above all for her faith: blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord (Luke 1:45). This Christmas, let us believe God's promises, and carry Christ with haste to someone who needs his joy. Amen.
Children, Mary visited her cousin and brought Jesus with her. When you visit someone with love, you bring Jesus too!
O Dayspring, splendour of eternal light and sun of justice, come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. Like Mary, let me hasten to serve, and let me be blessed in believing your word. Amen.
With Christmas four days away, the Church lets the Scripture of love speak. The beloved comes “leaping upon the mountains”, and in the Gospel Mary hurries through the hill country and the child in Elizabeth's womb leaps for joy. The alternative first reading, from Zephaniah, calls Daughter Zion to rejoice because the Lord is in her midst. Psalm 33 tells the just to exult. All three say that the Lord is near, and that the proper response is joy.
Setting.
“The Song of Songs” is a Hebrew way of saying the greatest of songs. It is a collection of love poems between a woman and a man, and it barely mentions God at all. Yet Jewish tradition read it as the love of God and Israel, and Rabbi Akiba called it the holy of holies among the Scriptures (Mishnah, Yadayim 3:5). Christian tradition, in Origen, St Gregory of Nyssa and St Bernard, read it as the love of Christ and the Church, and of Christ and the soul. Here the woman tells what she heard at the end of winter.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills.” (2:8)
No obstacle stops him. St Gregory the Great applied the “leaps” to Christ: from heaven to the womb, from the womb to the manger, from the manger to the Cross, from the Cross to the tomb, and from the tomb to heaven (in substance).
“for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.” (2:11)
In the land of Israel the winter rains end in spring, and the hills flower. The Church reads this in the dark of December (in the northern hemisphere) as a promise: the long winter of waiting is nearly over.
“let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.” (2:14)
He seeks her as much as she seeks him. In the Christian reading it is God who desires to hear our voice. Today's Gospel gives that voice: Mary's greeting.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that Tradition has always seen in the Song of Solomon a unique expression of human love, a reflection of God's own love, “strong as death” (CCC 1611). Both senses matter. It honours the love of husband and wife, and it teaches the Church to hear Christ as the Bridegroom (CCC 796). Placed before the Visitation, it invites us to hear Mary's journey as the beloved's coming, for she carries him.
Setting.
This is the other option the lectionary gives for today's first reading. After the judgment on Jerusalem and the promise of a humble remnant (read last Tuesday), the book of Zephaniah ends with joy. Zion is called to sing, for the Lord has cancelled the sentence against her.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel!” (3:14)
The Greek Old Testament begins this verse with chaire, “rejoice”, the very word of Gabriel to Mary (Luke 1:28).
“The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more.” (3:15)
The Malayalam POC numbers these words as v. 16.
“he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (3:17)
A note on the text. “He will renew you” follows the Greek and Syriac; the Hebrew reads “he will be silent in his love”. Each is beautiful. It is rare in the Bible and most moving to hear of God singing for joy over his people.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes these words when it explains the Hail Mary: “Rejoice ... O Daughter of Jerusalem ... the Lord your God is in your midst” (CCC 2676), and it says that Gabriel rightly greets Mary as Daughter of Zion (CCC 722).
Setting.
Mary has just given her consent, and Gabriel has told her of Elizabeth (1:36). She goes at once. The “Judean town in the hill country” is not named; an old tradition places it at Ein Karem, west of Jerusalem. Two women meet here with no man in the scene, and both carry a child whom God has promised.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (1:41)
Luke does not record what Mary says, only its effect. Her voice carries the presence of her Son, and the Spirit comes with him.
“And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” (1:43)
Many commentators hear David's words before the ark: “How can the ark of the Lord come into my care?” (2 Samuel 6:9). David danced before the ark, and the ark stayed three months in a house that was blessed (2 Samuel 6:11, 14); John leaps, and Mary stays about three months (Luke 1:56). “Lord” is the title Luke has been using for God all through this chapter (1:6, 9, 11), and Elizabeth uses it of the unborn child. The Church's title “Mother of God” has its root here (CCC 495).
“And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” (1:45)
Zechariah did not believe (1:20); Mary did. Elizabeth, Zechariah's wife, says this with no bitterness at all. It is the first beatitude in Luke, and Mary's greatness lies here.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism sees the Visitation as God's visit to his people: John is filled with the Spirit by Christ, whom Mary has just conceived (CCC 717). It says that Mary “most perfectly embodies the obedience of faith” and that for this faith all generations call her blessed (CCC 148). St John Paul II takes Elizabeth's words as the key to Mary's whole life in Redemptoris Mater (1987), nn. 12–19. St Ambrose, whose words on this Gospel are read in today's Office of Readings, says: let the soul of Mary be in each one, to magnify the Lord (in substance).
Why does Mary go “with haste”?
Luke does not give a reason in so many words, and the text does not say that she went to check the angel's sign. Everything suggests joy and love: she has a relative in need and news to share. St Ambrose says that the grace of the Holy Spirit knows nothing of slow efforts (in substance). The Christ whom she carries sets her at once on the road to someone else.
Today's O Antiphon is O Oriens, “O Dayspring” or “O Rising Dawn”, sung near the shortest day of the northern year: splendour of eternal light and sun of justice. It recalls Zechariah's song: “the dawn from on high will break upon us” (Luke 1:78). Today is also the optional memorial of St Peter Canisius, priest and doctor.