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Appleton, WI

May 31 – Day by Day with Father Bill

FEAST OF THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

-from a sermon by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, given at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, France on Sept 24, 2008
 
Mary is the first missionary, the first messenger of the Gospel, the first human being to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to another and she does it simply by carrying Christ Jesus within her. She reminds us that mission begins not in delivering a message in words but in the journey towards another person with Jesus in your heart. She testifies to the primary importance of simply carrying Jesus, even before there are words or deeds to show him and explain him. The story of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth is in many ways a very strange one. It is not about communication of rational information from one speaker to another, but a primitive current of spiritual electricity running from the unborn Christ to the unborn John the Baptist. But mission it undoubtedly is, because it evokes recognition and joy…The believer comes with Christ dwelling in them by faith, and God makes that current come alive, and a response begins, not yet in words and commitments, but simply in recognizing that here is life.
Happy Memorial Day, the unofficial opening of the Holy Season of Summer! Officially Summer arrives on Sunday, June 20. Let us pause to remember with great gratitude and reverence our women and men who gave their all – many their lives – in service to the values of peace and freedom for all!