Going Out with Haste to the Hill Country of Judea

 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. - Luke 1:39-40

Today we took our first “field trip” away from our new home. We hopped on the bus and enjoyed the beautiful views of the Israeli hills, valleys, and countryside on our way to a few holy sites. 

 Our first stop was at St. John of the Wilderness, a Franciscan monastery which commemorates the time John the Baptist spent in the desert before publicly preaching as the precursor to Jesus Christ. The visit included a few moments of prayer in the intimate setting of a small cave believed to have been inhabited by John. It was here that the Lord prepared John through many years of silence and sacrifice to preach to Israel and reveal the glory of the Lamb of God, our Savior Jesus Christ. 

Next, we traveled to Ein Karem, the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth, and therefore, the site of both the Visitation and the Birth of John the Baptist. St. Luke’s portrayal of these scenes gave us the ancient hymns which seminarians and priests prayer every single day in the canticles for Morning and Evening Prayer. Mary’s outpouring of joyful praise during the Visitation is called the Magnificat, and Zechariah’s song of thanksgiving for the fulfillment of the promise of the Messiah is called the Benedictus. 

Outside of the two churches which memorialize each event was a wall full of the respective hymn in over thirty languages. During our visit, we witnessed groups from across the world reciting these hymns in many different languages, and we even took the chance to sing the Magnificat together in the very spot where Mary first proclaimed those words over two thousand years ago. 

This experience is one I will never forget, because it gave me a totally new sense of the unity of the prayer of the universal Church. Every time I pray Morning or Evening Prayer, I am joining the grant multitude of faithful Christians throughout the centuries who have echoed the beautiful words of Mary and Zechariah that occurred right there. We are never alone in our prayers. As members of the Body of Christ, every prayerful word and movement of the heart is intimately joined with billions of faithful souls from history. All of us truly and mysteriously unite with each other and with those initial and most pure songs of praise sung by Mary and Zechariah.

Our God is so good to invite us into this beautiful communion with him in his Mystical Body. May he be praised in the song of our hearts now and always.