The Infant in My Womb Leaped for Joy

Drawing: Mary and Eve by Sr. Grace Remington, downloaded from Catholic Link.

Sister Grace Remington's drawing captures my feeling (today and most days). If I dare, if I could, I'd have Eve represent me as a repentant sinner in the drawing. A prayer starts, "O Jesus, living in Mary, come and live in your servants..."

But there is a similar picture that comes from Scripture. This event happens immediately after the Word of God becomes incarnate in the womb of Mary. The archangel Gabriel tells Mary that her kinswoman is six months pregnant, and Mary departs in haste to her cousin. This is called (in praying the Rosary) the Mystery of the Visitation. Raphael has a wonderful painting of this event.

Painting: The visitation by Raphael, 1517, downloaded from Wikimedia.

After the news broke on the Supreme Court's decision on Dobbs, I sent the following in an email to some friends (this by no means unique, I've seen similar published around the web):

Given that the majority on the court are Catholics (and the core of the majority opinion today), I wonder if it's mere coincidence that the opinion was released today, on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Even more, today's solemnity displaced the Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist (which is ordinarily celebrated on June 24th). This is appropriate, as John said, "He must increase; I must decrease" (Jn 3:30). In Luke 1:39-44, when mother Mary enters Elizabeth's house, John leaps for joy in his mother's womb at the entrance of the newly conceived Jesus within the womb of Mary.

As mercy pours out of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I thank our heavenly Father for all the gifts we've been given, including the gift of life, and for those who embrace it, the gift of eternal life in communion with the Holy Trinity. And I pray that He continues to rain down grace upon us to strengthen us for the upcoming battles, and that we unite ourselves to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

Because, I desire a change in my heart, I concluded with a couple of favorite passages in Scripture:

(RSVCE) Ez 36
26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.

(RSVCE) Ps 51
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence,
    and take not thy holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of thy salvation,
    and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Since today was a celebration of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, this morning's Gospel reading finished with the line: "[Mary] kept all these things in her heart." It's something worth pondering.