Unlike a simple visit, a visitation is different owing to the purpose intended by the get-together. A visitation aims to accomplish something. Specifically, a visitation is an encounter that carries within it a meaning that is exceptional. In the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that meaning is not a "message" but rather the exceptional presence of the Son she carries within her womb. We can be certain that the mystery of the Visitation is effective in our life if we do now, before Jesus is born, what Christ will command us to do as he dies: "Behold, your mother." Magnificat, May 2006"We have invoked her in a special way during this month of May, but the month of May cannot end. It has to continue in our life, because our veneration and our love for her, the devotion we have to Our Lady cannot disappear from our hearts, but rather has to grow and express itself in a witness of Christian living, fashioned according to the example of Mary, 'the name of the beautiful flower that I ever invoke morning and evening', as Dante put it." (Paradiso, 23, 88).
John Paul II Homily, 25 May 1979
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