Collect: “O Lord, who never failest to help and govern those whom thou dost bring up in thy steadfast fear and love; Keep us, we beseech thee, under the protection of thy good providence, and make us to have a perpetual fear and love of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Feast Day:

Tuesday, July 2: The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Embrace of Elizabeth and the Virgin Mary. St. George Church, Kurbinovo, North Macedonia, c. 1190

On this day, we remember the event recorded in Luke 1:39-56, when the Virgin Mary hurries to see her cousin Elizabeth after the Annunciation. It’s also celebrated on May 31st. But, from 1263 (when St. Bonaventure proposed the new feast day for the Franciscans) to 1969, it was celebrated on July 2. As soon as Elizabeth sees Mary, she greets her with what became the basis for the Angelus : “Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb!” John the Baptist leaps in his mother’s womb at Mary’s approach. And Mary responds with her song, the Magnificat, which we sing, remembering the Incarnation, at Evening Prayer.

Jeremy Taylor, in his Life of the Blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, wrote:

“It is not easy to imagine what collision of joys was at this blessed meeting; two mothers of two great princes, the one the greatest that was born of woman, and the other his Lord. When these who were made mothers by two miracles came together, they met with joy and mysteriousness. The mother of our Lord went to visit the mother of his servant, and the Holy Ghost made the meeting festival. Never, but in heaven, was there more joy and ecstasy. “

Homely Links:

From the Archives: Two years ago, I (Amanda) wrote a series on Imagining Musical Culture for Humane Pursuits. Here are the posts:

• Imagining a Musical Culture (“A musical culture needs music made to last and music made for everyone. It must be made to last, because culture passes through generations (not just through radio airwaves for a few months). It must be made for everyone, because we share this music in community — with old and young, rich and poor, even living and dead. It is meant to transcend us. We cheat ourselves, and our children, when we live only with music that is made for the moment, for the individual, by the experts.”)
• Learning to Hear, Learning to Sing with Ken Myers (“In 2011, we providentially attended a lecture called “Music and Discipleship” from a cultural journalist named Ken Myers of Mars Hill Audio. This evening made history for us, beginning a relationship that changed our lives. In the lecture, Ken insisted that music itself (the form) has meaning, apart from the words (the content). And, he said, we become musical relativists when we insist that any genre or form is acceptable for worship, ignoring ancient wisdom on music’s possibilities. The early church agonized about whether to include the organ in worship, because of the theological richness they saw in voices singing together in unison (and then, later, in parts). We only agonize about content, forgetting that, as Marshall McLuhan said, ‘The medium is the message.’ “)
• In Praise of Nursery Songs (“I know that just because something is old doesn’t mean that it necessarily has merit. But in the case of nursery songs, it does mean that they are shared. My grandmother sits on the floor with my daughters, her great-granddaughters, and sings the “Eensy Weensy Spider.” Though we have lost so much of our musical culture, we still have this: my daughters can share music with their great-grandmother and echo an experience that could have taken place with her grandmother, eighty years earlier.”)
• At Home with Music (“Having children makes you think differently about your everyday music. It begins when they are babies; it’s impossible not to sing, even if you aren’t in practice. As you sing the same songs over and over again, you ponder: what are the best songs for rocking to sleep, for play? And, mostly, what songs should become part of the bedrock of their consciousness?”)