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Assuming that the Annunciation
and the Incarnation took place about the vernal equinox, Mary left
Nazareth at the end of March and went over the mountains to Hebron, south
of Jerusalem, to wait upon her cousin Elizabeth, because her presence and
much more the presence of the Divine Child in her womb, according to the
will of God, was to be the source of very great graces to the Blessed
John, Christ's Forerunner. The event is related in Luke 1:39-57. Feeling
the presence of his Divine Saviour, John, upon the arrival of Mary, leaped
in the womb of his mother; he was then cleansed from original sin and
filled with the grace of God. Our Lady now for the first time exercised
the office which belonged to the Mother of God made man, that He might by
her mediation sanctify and glorify us. St. Joseph probably accompanied
Mary, returned to Nazareth, and when, after three months, he came again to
Hebron to take his wife home, the apparition of the angel, mentioned in
Matthew 1:19-25, may have taken place to end the tormenting doubts of
Joseph regarding Mary's maternity. (Cf. also MAGNIFICAT.)
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