Luke's Gospel places the visitation immediately after the Annunciation: Mary sets out in haste to the hill country of Judah, greets Elizabeth, and at the sound of her voice the child in Elizabeth's womb leaps for joy. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cries out, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb," words the Church has prayed for centuries in the Hail Mary, and asks, "How does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Mary answers with the Magnificat, the canticle the Church sings every evening at Vespers. The feast spread through the Franciscan Order in the thirteenth century and was extended to the whole Latin Church by Pope Urban VI in 1389, with the intention of imploring an end to the Great Western Schism through Mary's intercession. In the revision of the calendar after the Second Vatican Council it was moved from July 2 to May 31, so that it falls between the Solemnity of the Annunciation on March 25 and the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist on June 24, matching the sequence of events in the Gospel. The day is celebrated with white vestments, the Gloria, and a proper preface. The Church reads the scene as the first act of the Gospel's mission: the one who carries Christ carries him to others, and does so in service. The Visitation is the second of the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary, and its fruit is traditionally named as love of neighbor. The Directory on Popular Piety commends the daily singing or recitation of the Magnificat as the Church's own response to the mercy shown to the lowly.

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May 31

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