The queen takes her place at your right hand in gold of Ophir. The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold.

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, says, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” She cries out in a loud voice before Mary and before God as a prophet might cry out or as one so full of conviction that it was impossible not to cry out. Elizabeth is divinely inspired to express what has become contained in the Hail Mary, prayed countless billions of times generation after generation. And what did she say that resounds over the millennia? “Blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Because Elizabeth was divinely inspired to say these words as was Mary in proclaiming the Magnificat, the depth and breadth of what they express continue to invite us into the beauty and mystery of the incarnation, the resurrection of Jesus, and Mary's assumption, body and soul, into heaven.

God, thank you for what the Gospel reveals about Mary and Elizabeth’s greeting to each other. They each express a depth of faith that goes beyond what is knowable in the natural world. Elizabeth proclaimed Mary as the Mother of God before Jesus’ birth, and Mary praised God for remembering his promise of mercy. God, help me recognize Mary’s role as an instrument of mercy, both in life and after her assumption. She proclaimed the greatness of the Lord and his holy name: “for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers.” Mary, Queen of Heaven, pray for us!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.