Visitation
Visitation
We would like to speak in this topic about the meaning of visitation, its importance, general visitation, special visitation, the method of visitation, and its benefits…
Visitation and not mere visiting
There is a great difference between visitation and mere visiting. Visiting may mean that the father priest visits a family and speaks with its members about something, as if it were purely a social act.
But visitation is a pastoral spiritual visit in which the priest enters the house, and God enters with him into the house and remains there.
It is a visit with a religious and instructional character. It carries the meaning of caring for the family from every aspect and knowing whether the house has a spiritual or worldly character. Does it have a Holy Bible, hymn and praise books, Agpeya and prayers or not? Are all members of the family regular in attending the Divine Liturgy, confession, and communion or not? Do they regularly attend church meetings? Are the children and youths regular in Sunday School? Do young men and young women attend youth meetings? Are the children baptized? Does the home memorize verses from Scripture? Are there religious pictures on the walls or worldly ones? Are the students in the house successful in their studies or not?
And in visitation there is spiritual guidance for the people of the house…
It can be by a general spiritual topic suitable for them, or by a spiritual word directed to each individual, fulfilling what they lack spiritually, connecting them with God, the Church, and its activities, and following up and ensuring this. He may also help them memorize verses appropriate for them.
And in his visitation of a poor family, he considers its needs and works to help it.
I also like the priest whose pockets or bag are filled with gifts.
He gives children or youths crosses or icons or pictures. He gives young men spiritual books or prayer books. He leaves in the house a Gospel or a religious picture, or a Holy Bible if they lack one…
And he may ensure that the house has a Holy Bible by asking them for it to read a chapter for them.
The important thing is that the family feels in the priest’s visit that they have begun a good relationship with God.
Or that their relationship has deepened, or that they received a special blessing through this visit. Or that this visitation of their home was a historical event in their lives, or a day they cannot forget. And if this visitation is repeated, they feel special joy and spiritual delight, and that God granted them a special grace through the priest’s visitation.
There were some men of God who were a blessing to the homes they entered.
An example is Elijah the prophet in the house of the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17).
And Elisha the prophet in the house of the Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4).
Likewise Joseph the righteous was a blessing in Potiphar’s house, and the Lord was with him. And everything he did the Lord made prosper: “And his master saw that the Lord was with him… So he made him overseer of his house… And from the time he made him overseer of his house… the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake.” (Genesis 39:2–5).
May every father priest be a blessing to the house he enters.
And he can also gather some families together if the building contains many Coptic families, and speak to them all a spiritual word… Of course he does not do this if the visitation is for a family that needs a special kind of visitation requiring confidentiality due to its spiritual or social circumstances. For the family may have private matters not suitable for a gathering with multiple families. But whom does the father priest visit? We mention first:
General visitation
The priest must have a map of the church area.
He can assign some servants to prepare it so that it includes all streets and their branches, with all Christian families marked on it, so the priest may visit them all without exception and follow up their visitation. This is general or periodic visitation.
By this he knows his people, and his people know him.
He may know the addresses of all the people by asking them to leave them for him so he may visit them. It is easy to know this through forms distributed to them, printed with information to be completed: the name of the head of the family and his wife and children, address, phone number, occupation, the children’s ages and schooling, relatives living with the family if any, and suitable times for visitation.
It is very easy to distribute such forms during feast days and seasons when all the people gather, with follow-up of the information if it changes.
Families can also be known through Sunday School children and their addresses, through youth meetings, and through other church activities…
In general visitation, the priest must not have a special group.
He must not visit certain families he considers his “special ones,” repeatedly visiting them while neglecting the rest, who feel this and are saddened by it. In ordaining every new priest, we make him say in his vow before the altar and before all the people that “he will have no special group but will care for all.” And the Didascalia requires that the shepherd “care for every person to save him.”
We are very saddened when some families complain to us that many long years passed without a single priest entering their home!!
Let every father priest review the family register he has in the church and see whom he has not yet visited.
First we must ask: Does every church have such a family register or not?
I thank God that most of our churches in the diaspora have such registers containing the names of every family member, house address, telephone number, and occupation, including the children and youths. This brings us to another point:
Church membership
No doubt church membership often precedes visitation.
For how can he visit families he does not know and who are not registered with him?!
But this does not mean he should wait to visit until church membership is complete in his church area!! He begins with what he has, and little by little he will get to know all his people. And thus we obtain another result:
Through visitation, church membership is also recorded.
The priest may have church membership cards to be filled during visitation — not as one conducting a census, but through a pastoral spiritual act. For church membership and visitation together are a means for pastoral and spiritual work, not merely administrative organization!!
And there is no harm in asking each family during your visit about other families they know among their neighbors or acquaintances or friends, so the priest may visit them and add them to the church membership list, entering them into his records if they are not already written. Here we ask:
What are the categories the priest visits in special visitation?
Among them are visitation of the sick, visitation of the absent, visitation of those in distress or in a problem, visitation of families in cases of death, visitation for a liturgical act such as blessing homes or the Kandeel rite, or for a family occasion such as a birthday, wedding, or return from travel… and more.
We hope to speak about these matters in the next issue, if the grace of the Lord wills and we live.
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