At his General Audience 13 June, the Holy Father continued his series of instructions on the Holy Spirit:

1. The truth about the Holy Spirit is clearly given in the Gospel texts which describe moments in the life and mission of Christ. We have already paused to reflect on Jesus' virginal conception and birth of Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. There are other pages of the "infancy Gospel", to which we must direct our attention because in these the working of the Holy Spirit is highlighted in a special way.

One of these moments is surely the passage in which the evangelist Luke recounts the visit of Mary to the house of Elizabeth. We read that "during those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah" (Lk 1:39). It is commonly understood that he is referring to the locality of Ain-Karim, six kilometers to the West of Jerusalem. Mary goes there to be near her relative Elizabeth, who is older than she. She goes there after the Annunciation, to which the Visitation is almost a complement. In fact the angel had said to Mary: "Behold, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing is impossible with God" (Lk 1:36-37).

Mary undertakes the journey to Elizabeth "in haste", certainly out of a heartfelt need to offer her loving service as a sister during those months of advanced pregnancy. Within her sensitive and gentle spirit a feeling of feminine solidarity was blossoming, as is characteristic of such circumstances. But against that psychological backdrop, there is probably in play the experiencing of a special communion which was forged between her and Elizabeth during the announcement made by the angel: the son whom Elizabeth was expecting will be, in fact, the precursor of Jesus and the one who baptizes him in the Jordan.

2. On the basis of that communion of spirits we understand why the evangelist Luke takes so much care in accenting the working of the Holy Spirit during the meeting of the two future mothers: Mary, "entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth, and when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit" (Lk 1:40-41). This work of the Holy Spirit experienced by Elizabeth in a particularly profound way as she met Mary, is related to the mysterious destiny of the son whom she is carrying in her womb. Earlier the baby's father Zechariah was heard to say, as he received the news about the birth of his son during his priestly service in the temple: "He will he filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb" (Lk 1:15).

At the moment of the Visitation when Mary crosses the threshold of Elizabeth's house (and, with her, He who is already the "fruit of her womb" crosses it too), that presence of the Holy Spirit is felt in an experiential way by Elizabeth. She herself bears witness to that in the greeting she addresses to the young mother who came to visit her.

3. In fact, according to Luke's Gospel, Elizabeth "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"' (Lk 1:42-45).

In a few lines, the evangelist reveals to us the surprise of Elizabeth, the joyous leaping of the baby in her womb, her at least somewhat confused understanding of the messianic identity of the baby that Mary was carrying in her womb, the recognition of Mary's faith in the revelation which was given her by the Lord. Beginning with these passages, Luke uses the divine title "Lord" not only to speak of the God who reveals and promises ("the works of the Lord"), but also of the son of Mary, Jesus, to whom in the New Testament the title is attributed especially as the Risen One (cf. Acts 2:36; Phil 2:11). Here he is yet to be born. But Elizabeth no less than Mary perceives his messianic greatness.

4. That means that Elizabeth, "filled with the Holy Spirit", is introduced into the depths of the mystery of the coming of the Messiah. Within her the Holy Spirit works a special enlightenment which finds expression in the salutation she addresses to Mary. Elizabeth speaks as if she were participating in and witnessing the Annunciation in Nazareth. In her words she defines the very essence of the mystery which was at work at that moment in Mary; by saying "the mother of my Lord comes to me," she calls the baby which Mary has been carrying (for just a short while) in her womb "my Lord." And then she proclaims Mary herself "Blessed among women", and adds: "Blessed is she who has trusted", as if she wished to make reference to the attitude and behavior of the handmaid of the Lord, who answered the angel with her "fiat": "May it be done to me according to your word!" (Lk 1:38).

5. The text of Luke shows his conviction that, in both Mary and Elizabeth the Holy Spirit was acting, enlightening and inspiring them. Just as the Holy Spirit helped Mary perceive the mystery of her messianic motherhood brought about within her virginity, so the Spirit gives Elizabeth the ability to discover Him whom Mary is carrying in her womb and to discover what Mary is called to be in the economy of salvation: the "Mother of the Lord". And the Spirit gives her the inner energy which prompts her to proclaim what she has learned "in a loud voice" (Lk 1:42), with a kind of enthusiasm and joy which are also the result of the Holy Spirit.

The mother of the future preacher and baptizer in the Jordan attributes that joy to the baby whom she has been carrying for sixth months in her womb: "the infant in my womb leaped for joy". Mother and son are united in a kind of spiritual symbiosis, by which the exultation of the baby almost infects her who conceived Him and, behold: Elizabeth breaks out into that shout which expresses the joy which she profoundly shared with her son, as Luke testifies.

6. Continuing with the Lucan narrative, the Magnificat, the hymn of joy, wells up from the soul of Mary; in it she too expresses her joy: "My spirit rejoices in God my Savior" (Lk 1:4-7). Raised as she was in worship of the Word of God as it becomes known by reading and meditating on the Sacred Scripture, Mary in that moment felt welling up from the depths of her soul the verses of the canticle of Anna, Samuel's mother (cf. I Sam 2:1-10) as well as other Old Testament verses, in order to give free expression to the feelings of the "daughter of Sion", which found highest fulfillment in her.

That is what the evangelist came to know so well, on the basis of the private conversations he directly or indirectly shared with Mary. Among what was passed on there must have been news of that joy which the two mothers shared in common during that meeting, as the fruit of the love which beat in their hearts. It was the trinitarian Spirit-Love, who was revealing himself on the threshold of the "fullness of time" (Gal 4:4), inaugurated in the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word. Already in that blessed moment what Paul would later say was being fulfilled: "The fruit of the Holy Spirit... is love, joy, peace" (Gal 5:22).