A sign from heaven?

The feast of the Visitation was extended to the entire Church by Urban VI on April 6, 1389 (Decree then published by Boniface IX, Nov. 9, 1389), with the hope that Christ and His Mother would visit the Church and put an end to the Great Schism of 1378-1417 which rent the seamless garment of Christ.

It was only after the Second Vatican Council that the feast was moved to May 31st, in the "month of Mary," and generally also, as in this year 2020, in the liturgical time of Pentecost.

French mystic Marthe Robin (1902-1981) affirmed the close link between Mary and the Holy Spirit during the New Pentecost, as Father Joel Guibert* remarked in his beautiful book, "The Hour Has Come." God is indeed all-powerful, but his immense humility leads him to "hide" behind the smallest creature, Mary, in order to manifest his omnipotence. It was so with the first coming of God in the flesh, and it will be so with this mysterious coming of the Spirit on the world: the Spirit of Christ will manifest Himself through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This is in keeping with the powerful teaching of Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort:

"Mary has produced, with the Holy Spirit, the greatest thing that has ever been and ever will be, a God-Man, and she will consequently produce the greatest things that will be in the last days."... The New Pentecost is thus intimately linked to a deep devotion to Mary. "God wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart," Our Lady said to the visionaries at Fatima.

* Ordained a priest in the diocese of Nantes, France, Fr. Guibert is a renowned retreat leader and author of many books on spiritual growth.

The Marie de Nazareth editorial team, with excerpts from CNA