After the 11 AM Mass in our chapel on the Feast of the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, we processed to our Mary Garden. It was not a long procession on this last day of May, only a short walk out the door into a garden bright with the growing things of spring. 

In the Mary Garden Mary held out to us her Son, who made John the Baptist leap for joy in Elizabeth’s womb when she visited her.  As we prayed the joyful mysteries of the Rosary, we asked for joy for the journey of faith we all take. 

It’s interesting to note the journeys Mary takes in the joyful mysteries. From Nazareth in Galilee to the hill country in Judea where Elizabeth and Zachariah lived. From Nazareth to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus. Likely, she and Joseph traveled with their newborn Child from Nazareth to present him in the temple in Jerusalem. Then, they traveled back to Jerusalem to find him in the temple while fearing him lost. 

There’s a lot of travel time on the journey of faith. It’s a time of waiting before we arrive.

It may not be an easy time either. Mary’s journey to Egypt with the Child was certainly not easy, nor her journey with Jesus and his followers to Jerusalem where he was put to death and rose again.

Our procession was only a short walk, but it captures the journey we remember today when Mary, “in haste” set out for the hill country of Judea on her mission to an old couple who were also with child. May she help us make our journey of faith and rejoice in it.