by Sr. Irene Balzan MMM                           Ireland/Malta                                31.05.2024

The feast of the Visitation is at the core of who we celebrate to be as MMMs and AMMMs.
Personally, this day always infuses me with renewed life and energy as I ponder on the loving and
spirit-filled encounter between these two amazing women – Mary and Elizabeth.  This year the
Visitation comes just two weeks after Pentecost.  It offers us a quiet moment of reflection in the
midst of all that is happening around us.  The encounter of two women – waiting, tending to the
unanticipated seed of new life deep within each one of them, supporting one another in a time
of great uncertainty- and of incomprehensible joy and wonder in knowing that God had chosen
them as the carriers of his saving message.

But also, two women whose plans were disrupted; turned-upside-down; intruded upon by one
who slipped into their normal course of affairs, sight unseen.  And their lives were transformed!
And as they visited, they found in each other a kindred spirit, engendered by The Spirit.  Mary and
Elizabeth…witnesses to the God of the impossible.

It seems that our world today is filled with crises of all sorts – wars; ecological devastation; the
massive movement of peoples around the globe, forced from their homes and livelihoods due to
conflict, climate change and its accompanying famine, drought, floods, fires; and perhaps the
lingering effects of a pandemic.

I wonder if we are still with the Apostles in the upper room not knowing what to do or what to
say; wondering how we can ever be witnesses of Good News to the ends of the earth in these
extraordinarily uncertain – and dangerous times.  But Mary, strengthened and supported by
Elizabeth, is with us too.  And she is waiting – as she did so many times before; gently reminding
us, today, that the God of the impossible, can never be outdone!  So infused by this encounter
let us dare to hope and believe in the newness of life!

Mary and Elizabeth be our guides!