a joy that makes us want to kiss the earth

"The great mystery of the Incarnation, 

which meant that God became man so that man might become God, 

was a joy that made us want to kiss the earth in worship,

because His feet once trod that same earth."

 ~Dorothy Day [The Long Loneliness]

+    +    +

Mary set out

and traveled to the hill country in haste

to a town of Judah,

where she entered the house of Zechariah

and greeted Elizabeth.

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.

And how does this happen to me,

that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,

the infant in my womb leaped for joy.

Blessed are you who believed

that what was spoken to you by the Lord

would be fulfilled."

[Luke 1:39-45]

+    +    +

  

"For me it is the virgin birth, 

the Incarnation, 

the resurrection 

which are the true laws of the flesh and the physical. 

Death, decay, destruction are the suspension of these laws. 

I am always astonished at the emphasis the Church puts on the body. 

It is not the soul she says that will rise but the body, glorified.”

 ~Flannery O'Connor [The Habit of Being]

NOTE: All photos from our pilgrimage in September 2018 to the

Church of the Visitation, 

Ein Karem, Israel