So Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country of Judea to visit her kinswoman Elizabeth, the mother-to-be of John the Baptist.  That was Our Lord’s first journey.  After he was born he went on many journeys.

He was hurried by Mary and Joseph from Bethlehem to Egypt as a refugee to save him from those who sought his life to take it away.  Then came the long journey back to Nazareth and, when 12 years old, south again to Jerusalem to take part in the solemn service of the Temple, and so back to his humble home in Nazareth.  And when he finally left there some 18 years later it was to go about from place to place in Galilee and Judea, teaching the people and healing those who were sick among them.

But now, even before his Birth, his journeyings had already begun as Mary made her way to Elizabeth.  She now contained him whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain (1 Kings 8:27); and within herself she nourished the growing body of him who, in the words of the psalmist, “…knit me together in my mother’s womb” (NRSV, Psalm 139:13).