Monday, December 21, 2026 — Monday of the Fourth Week of Advent
Mary visits Elizabeth
Luke 1:39-45
Readings of the day: Song of Songs 2:8-14 or Zephaniah 3:14-18a; Psalm 33:2-3, 11-12, 20-21; Luke 1:39-45.
The Gospel
Mary sets out in haste to the hill country of Judah, to the house of Zechariah, to greet her kinswoman Elizabeth. At the sound of Mary’s greeting, the child in Elizabeth’s womb leaps for joy, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cries out: “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” She calls Mary the mother of her Lord and blesses her faith: “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
Reflection
Mary does not wait to be served; she goes in haste to serve. “The grace of the Holy Spirit knows not of slow workings,” says St. Ambrose, and the child in Elizabeth’s womb leaps before any word is spoken. “The higher went to the lower, that the lower might be assisted, Mary to Elisabeth, Christ to John.” Faith is not idle: it sets out, it greets, it brings Christ to others. Elizabeth’s blessing falls on Mary’s faith before it falls on her motherhood: blessed is she who believed. Whatever God has spoken to you, believe it today, and carry it in haste to someone who needs it.
From the Fathers
“The grace of the Holy Spirit knows not of slow workings.”
— St. Ambrose, Exposition on Luke, in the Catena Aurea on Luke 1:39–45
“For Jesus who was in her womb hastened to sanctify John, still in the womb of his mother.”
— Origen, in the Catena Aurea on Luke 1:39–45
Saint of the day
Saint Peter Canisius (1521–1597), Dutch Jesuit priest and Doctor of the Church, known as the “Second Apostle of Germany.” He preached and wrote tirelessly for the Catholic faith in Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Switzerland during the Reformation, founded colleges, and wrote a catechism that went through some two hundred editions in his lifetime. He was canonized and declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI in 1925.
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Sources: the day’s readings follow the daily lectionary (USCCB, Lectionary 197). The Gospel text is not reproduced here; read it at the link above. Patristic quotes: Catena Aurea on Luke 1:39–45, compiled by St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by John Henry Newman (1841, public domain).