The Feast of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary to her cousin Saint Elizabeth is celebrated today, on 31 May. In this regard, Saint Charles de Foucauld left in his writings a reflection on this significant celebration and a Marian prayer that can be prayed on this day.
The French Catholic newspaper La Croix points out that in 1898 Saint Charles wrote a meditation contemplating the Visitation as “an ideal and an invitation to go out to the whole world.” In addition, it presents some excerpts from what the saint wrote.
In his reflection, Saint Charles speaks lovingly to the Virgin, telling her that this festival is hers, but it is more about Christ “because it is He who acts in you and for you.” In this sense, he specifies that the Visitation is the charity of the Lord that drives her to get out of it. “It is Jesus who, as soon as he has entered into you, thirsts to make other saints and other people happy,” he maintains.
Later she indicates that the Virgin does not go with her cousin to tell each other what God did in them or only to help her materially because she is pregnant. “Mary went to sanctify Saint John, to announce the Good News to him, to evangelize and sanctify him, not with her words, but by bringing him to Jesus in silence,” she describes.
“This is what religious people who dedicate themselves to contemplation do… Without words, they carry Jesus among the people, in silence,” he emphasizes.
On the other hand, Vatican News, in its article on the Visitation of the Virgin Mary, presents a prayer from Saint Charles by Foucault, where the saint asks our “Mother solicitous in the Visitation” to take us to where Jesus is needed.
Below is the prayer:
Mary, caring mother in the Visitation,
teach us to listen to the Word,
a listening that makes us shudder and, in haste,
makes us turn towards all the situations of poverty
where the presence of your Son is needed.
Teach us to bring Jesus
in silence and humility, as you did.
May our fraternities (families) be present
among those who do not know him
to spread the Gospel of him,
bearing witness to him, not with words, but with life;
not announcing it, but living it.
Teach us to travel with simplicity
as you did,
with our eyes always focused on Jesus
present in your womb:
contemplating him, adoring him and imitating him.
Mary, woman of the Magnificat,
teach us to be faithful to our mission:
to bring Jesus to the people.
Oh beloved Mother, this is your own mission,
the first that Jesus entrusted to you,
and that you have deigned to share with us.
Help us and intercede for us so that we can do
what you did in the house of Zechariah,
glorifying God and sanctifying people in Jesus,
through Him and for Him! Amen!