Mary Visits Elizabeth, an Encounters of the Fourth Kind Video

By Fr. Ron Will, CPPS.

Welcome to this second episode in a series titled “Encounters of the Fourth Kind.”
If you were with us for the first episode, you probably remember that:
An encounter of the first kind is a sighting of a disk-like object in the distance.
An encounter of the second kind is similar but much closer than the first kind.
An encounter of the third kind is the sighting of non-human beings.
An encounter of the fourth kind is the actual encounter of human beings and
non-human beings.

This series invites you to go deeper in your relationship with God, to plunge into that deeper relationship. It is an invitation to enter the divine embrace.

Last month we entered into the encounter of Mary (a human being), and an angel (a non-human being). It was a very close and a very real encounter.

This series will help us to be open to a personal encounter with the God-man, Jesus Christ, in places where we don’t normally look for him.

I think we all have had experiences of a non-human being that immediately put us in contact with God. For example, I’ve driven through the Rocky Mountains, and I’ve driven through Sonoma, Arizona. I came around a bend in the road, and there was a breathtaking experience of beauty. They immediately put me in touch with God the creator of it all.

We say it was “awesome,” because we are in awe of the God we cannot see, but we are definitely encountering that God.

Or perhaps you’ve walked outside at night, looked up and were suddenly awestruck with the starlight sky and a full moon. I personally can’t look at such a beautiful sky without thinking about God.

I invite you today to take a few minutes right now and recall what happened to Mary after the Annunciation by the Angel Gabriel, when Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth.

I invite you to close your eyes for a few minutes, use your active imagination and put yourself in the home of Zachariah & Elizabeth.

In this mediation, you are witnessing a close encounter of the fourth kind. Continue to sit in silence for a couple minutes and experience that encounter yourself.

Then join me again next month, for another close encounter of the fourth kind.
God bless you.

All of the videos in this series can be found here: Encounters of the Fourth Kind.

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[Fr. Ron Will, a Precious Blood priest and spiritual director, is a graduate of Catholic Theological Union and Creighton University’s School of Christian Spirituality. He has a special interest in helping form intentional disciples of Jesus, encouraging others to go spiritually deep-sea diving to explore a deeper relationship with God, and walking with people as they dive into the ocean of God’s mystery actually experiencing God rather than simply dipping one’s toe into the water.]

Visitation of the Virgin Mary, medieval relief on the facade of Basilica of San Zeno in Verona, Italy. Photo 132024490 / Visitation © Zatletic | Dreamstime.com

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