Notes on Visitation
Notes on Visitation [1]
There are certain notes that the father priest should observe in visitation:
1– It is good that visitation be by a prior appointment.
So the family he visits will know the time of his visit, and thus prepare for it, so they are not occupied with something else that requires them to leave the house. They also prepare by gathering the whole family together during the visit, so that the father priest can visit all members of the family at once. The family will also be mentally prepared with regard to what they wish to discuss with the father priest.
This prior appointment for the visitation may be arranged through meeting some family members in the church, or through a phone call, or by sending a deacon, or through a committee in the church that organizes visitation.
An appointment for visitation can also be arranged even when visiting a patient in a hospital. And sometimes arranging an appointment is not required in exceptional cases, such as a disaster or accident. But such exceptions must not become a rule.
2– The appointment of the visit does not require hospitality expenses.
The visit is a spiritual visit. The father priest should not link it with offering hospitality, otherwise it turns from a spiritual matter into a social one. Moreover, hospitality does not help the priest visit more families in need of care, because hospitality delays him. Also, visits may embarrass some poor families or individuals who cannot afford hosting.
3– In visitation, the time and nature of the occasion should be considered.
It should not be, for example, during students’ exam times or their preparation for exams, lest he distract them from their studies, and the priest becomes responsible for this disruption. And if he visits them during such a period, it should be only for prayer and encouragement, and should last only a few minutes. Even in other occasions, time and its importance for each family member should be considered.
4– Visitation should not take place in the absence of the head of the household.
Nor should it occur without his knowledge. And if the wife urgently needs a private session with the father priest in the absence of her husband, to explain a problem with him for example, then such a spiritual session should take place in the church—this is much better. Unless the husband is traveling and has asked the priest by phone or by message to visit his family and care for them in his absence. In this case there is no objection, provided that the visitation is for all family members together.
5– Visitation should have practical results.
The family members should feel that the priest has begun to take practical steps for their sake: such as enrolling the children in Sunday School, guiding young men and women to youth meetings, baptizing those who need baptism, arranging confessions, and solving problems that require solutions…
6– It is good in visitation that the father priest be accustomed to giving.
He may give a Gospel, an Agpeya, a spiritual book, an icon, some crosses, or a small gift on a special occasion.
His concern in visitation should not be to take, for this is improper.
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