(ONLY VIDEO) During his weekly catechesis, the Pope reflected on what he called “the mystery of the Visitation.” Specifically he reflected on the Magnificat hymn and said that “it is a grateful remembrance of the past that enkindles the present with faith and illuminates the future with hope”.
COMPLETE CATECHESIS SUMMARY IN ENGLISH:
Dear brothers and sisters,
in our continuing Jubilee catechesis on “Jesus Christ our Hope”, we now consider the mystery of the Visitation. The Virgin Mary’s faith in God’s word bore immediate fruit in charity as she set out to assist her elderly kinswoman Elizabeth. At their meeting, Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, exclaimed of Mary: “Blessed is she who believed that the Lord’s promise to her would be fulfilled” (cf. Lk 1:45). Mary responds with a hymn – the Magnificat – praising God’s mercy, which endures “from generation to generation”, and his fidelity to the promise of salvation which he made “to Abraham and his descendents forever” (vv. 50, 55). From Mary, may we learn to trust unfailingly in God’s word, in the redemption won for us by Jesus, and in the ultimate fulfilment of his saving plan at the end of time.
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors, especially those coming from Ireland, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and the United States, and offer my good wishes that the Jubilee will be for all of you a season of spiritual renewal and growth in the joy of the Gospel. Upon you and your families I gladly invoke God’s blessings of wisdom, strength and peace.
JRB
JH
