Joyful Mysteries · 2 of 5
The Visitation
Scripture: Luke 1:39-56
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, "Most 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." And Mary said: "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he has looked upon his handmaid's lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed."
Spiritual fruit: Charity toward neighbor
Traditionally prayed on: Monday and Saturday
The Visitation is the second of the Joyful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary. It commemorates the journey of the Virgin Mary, recently informed of her own conception of the Son of God, to the hill country of Judah to assist her elderly cousin Elizabeth, who in her old age had conceived Saint John the Baptist.
The mystery
The narrative is recorded in Saint Luke 1:39-56. Mary, having received the Annunciation, sets out "in haste" to visit Elizabeth, a journey of approximately ninety miles from Nazareth into the hill country of Judah. Upon Mary's arrival, the infant John leaps in Elizabeth's womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, greets Mary with the words now embedded in the Hail Mary: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb."
Mary's reply is the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), the great song of praise that has been prayed at Vespers in the Liturgy of the Hours every day of the Catholic year for more than fifteen hundred years. The Magnificat is the longest set of words attributed to Mary in the New Testament and is the foundation of the Marian prayer of the Catholic Church.
Meditation on charity toward neighbor
The traditional spiritual fruit of the Visitation is charity toward neighbor, drawn directly from Mary's example. Saint Ambrose of Milan, in his Treatise on the Gospel of Luke, observes that Mary, having been told that she was to be the Mother of God, did not retreat into solitary contemplation of her own dignity but immediately set out to be of practical service to her elderly cousin in the final months of her pregnancy.1 The Visitation is, in this sense, the model for all Catholic acts of charity that flow from contemplative encounter with God.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the Visitation is the first instance of the missionary character of Mary, who carries Christ within her into the world for the sanctification of others.2
Praying the Visitation
To pray the second Joyful Mystery: announce "The second Joyful Mystery, the Visitation," pray an Our Father, ten Hail Marys while meditating on Mary's journey and the Magnificat, and conclude with a Glory Be and the Fatima Prayer.
For the previous mystery, see the Annunciation. For the next mystery, see the Nativity.
Sources
Footnotes
Last reviewed: May 1, 2026. Sources verified.