It’s a moving scene that Luke describes in today’s Gospel reading: Mary goes to the hill country to see her relative Elizabeth, who has conceived in old age. The women greet each other… and so do their sons, both still in the womb. Call it, Father Paul Berghout said in his homily, a tale of two visitations.
“John the Baptist was already prophesizing in the womb,” Father Paul said, noting that we are told often in scripture that God knew us in the 
womb and before, and that He has called us to a purpose.
Father Paul defined a visitation as “a meeting where the presence of God is realized.” He talked of mothers meeting mothers, teachers meeting teachers, priests meeting priests and so on. He said in essence that these visitations involving shared experience can make it easier to talk about what the Lord is doing in our lives.
I thought about the visitations with which I am blessed due to the path I’ve walked: with people I encounter who’ve lived in a state in which I’ve lived. With writers. With editors. With baby boomers. With federal employees. With people who love Brittany dogs. With Christians. With Catholics. There’s a commonality with everyone, if only we are willing to be vulnerable in finding it.
I’ll also be chewing on what Father Paul described as the three stages of responding when the Lord’s plans for us are revealed: Impossible. Difficult. DONE. My prayer will be that I can move away from thinking anything the Lord asks is impossible.
