The Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her cousin Elizabeth is celebrated on the thirty-first day of May.  Pope Innocent III, who reigned as the Vicar of Christ from 1198-1216, wrote a sermon for the feast of the Assumption in which he comments on Mary's words both at the time of the Annunciation and Visitation, which are taken from the first chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke.

" 'Behold, I am the handmaid of The Lord: let it be done to me according to your word . . . For he has looked upon the lowliness of his handmaid, for behold, from this day all generations will call me blessed.'  O happy humility, which adorns virginity!  Humility adorns virginity, lest virginity be proud.  Virginity honors humility, lest humility be despised.  Therefore, virginity is humble, lest it be proud, and humility is virginal, lest it be scorned.  We read that there are prudent virgins and proud virgins (Matthew 25).  The prudent virgins are humble, while the foolish virgins are proud."

In ancient times, a handmaid was a slave.  Mary's eagerness to declare that she was The Lord's handmaid shows her humility, while her virginity allows her to proclaim with absolute freedom that she is The Lord's handmaid -- his slave -- and no other's.  In Mary, the freedom of virginity and the wisdom of humility come together and form perfect beauty.

This is what we find in the Feast of Mary's Visitation.  The freedom of her virginity allowed her to go to the aid of her aged and pregnant cousin, and the wisdom of her humility told her that her place, at that time, was at her cousin's side.  And there, she consoled Elizabeth with the presence of the newly conceived Lord and Savior, and enlightened her as to the destiny of her own son, John.

Purity and wisdom, then, must go together for the Christian.  Let us act on the urging of Pope Innocent III, who observed, regarding Mary, "Who has ever prayed to her and not been heard?"  Through her prayers may we acquire the purity of heart and true knowledge and joy in our own lowliness that we might become like her, and become like her Son.

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is traditionally celebrated on the first Thursday after the second Sunday after Pentecost.  St. Albert the Great, who lived in the thirteenth century, wrote a marvelous commentary on the Holy Mass, the offering of the Sacrifice of this Body and Blood to the Father. His comments on the phrase, Ite, missa est, describe the work of the Mass:

"[The deacon] adds, 'He is sent' [Missa est], meaning that the Sacrifice of the Son has been offered, and the sacramental species consumed, and he [the Son] is "sent" to the right hand of the Father, that there he may offer us, within himself, to the Father, so that . . . he may prepare a place for us there, as it is written in John 14, 2: I go to prepare a place for you."

St. Albert is saying here that all the faithful who are joined to Christ as his members in Baptism, are strengthened in this union with him in the reception of the Blessed Sacrament, and are then "sent" with him into heaven, where The Lord pleads for us at the right hand of the Father.  We are joined to him, for in receiving him in Holy Communion, he receives us, so that we are truly "within" him.

Ite, Missa est, was, in fact, a commonly used dismissal of a public gathering, comparable to our modern, "Court is adjourned".  It was a natural enough way for the priest or the deacon to dismiss the people after the Mass was completed.  But the words usually ending the Mass, according to St. Albert, are not primarily about our own "going forth", but about The Lord's going to the Father at the culmination of his Sacrifice.  Reflection on St. Albert's words remind us that the Holy Mass is not about us so much as it is about God.