The Bishop writes
Sculpture of Mary and Elizabeth in the Church of the Visitation in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem The Bible is full of Visitations – sometimes by angels with messages from God and sometimes by people visiting one another. In the New Testament, Mary is visited by the angel to tell her that she has been chosen by God. Mary and Elizabeth visit one another in preparation for God’s great Visitation which took place in a stable at Bethlehem.
St Luke’s Gospel celebrates the great Christmas event with the words, ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people’.
The infant Christ is visited by shepherds who were despised by the religious people of the day, and he was visited by the Magi, who were Gentile seekers after truth. Many times Jesus visits people and when he visited Zaccheus, Jesus even invited himself to stay.
In February, I shall be carrying out a Visitation to a community of Anglican sisters in the east end of London who work among the poor. I am the Visitor to six communities of monks and nuns and usually carry out a Visitation every five years. It is not an inspection but an opportunity to be alongside people to reflect on how they are living the gospel and to help discern how God is at work among them.
Visitations are a regular part of Church life. In the early Church, Christians visited one another to provide encouragement and share hospitality. They would read the scriptures, break bread, pray together and minister to one another. By the sixth century, Visitations had become more formal when bishops visited their congregations and sometimes delegated the task to others. Sometimes, Visitations are seen as inspections which is a shame because the purpose of a Visitation is pastoral. It is to be alongside fellow Christians to see how we can minister to one another and better serve the Church and the world.
In some places, it is the custom for the priest (or deacons and laity) to visit the homes of the congregation each year either during the forty days of Lent or the fifty days of Eastertide to read the scriptures, to pray and to minister, and to bless the homes.
I am asking our parish clergy to carry out such a Visitation this year. To assist them, I shall be producing a leaflet for members of the congregations and also a small card to be left in each home as a reminder of the visit. I have carried out such Visitations myself as a parish priest and found it to be a great time of blessing and a wonderful opportunity of doing what I was ordained to do – to minister to the people entrusted to my care. In parishes with large congregations, clergy may wish to invite Readers and lay people to assist.
I am therefore asking all of you to welcome your parish priest to your homes. The visit will last 30 to 40 minutes during which time there will be a reading of scripture, and a time for prayer and ministry. It will conclude with a prayer for God’s blessing upon your home.
With every blessing,
+ Dominic