the Visitation — Henry Ossawa Tanner

“Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work; a future. To be courageous is not necessarily to go anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of those consequences. To be courageous is to seat our feelings deeply in the body and in the world: to live up to and into the necessities of relationships that often already exist, with things we find we already care deeply about: with a person, a future, a possibility in society, or with an unknown that begs us on and always has begged us on.”

In this second week of Advent, we read of announcements, dreams and visitations. A child of God is to bear God’s child. Mary hurried to her cousin, Elizabeth, who was also with child. Both women were living into their motherhood. Each with a role in bringing God’s kingdom to the world. 

Mary sought the comfort and strength of Elizabeth’s home. In that place, in presence of Elizabeth’s faith and wisdom, she knew she could share that which she felt deeply. She knew she could exclaim how magnificent this child would be. Mary knew Elizabeth would understand the courage it had taken for her to say “yes”.

In the mean time, angels are visiting Joseph in dreams to instill courage in him to take his betrothed and move ahead. A charge he would accept knowing all would face consequences.

The word for this second week of Advent is Courage.

Quote: David Whyte (Brain Pickings by Maria Popova)