Visitation
Visitation [1]
† The Lord gives us a beautiful idea of visitation, when He missed His fold and found one sheep absent, so He went to seek it.
† Visitation was evident in the apostolic age, from the saying of Saint Paul the Apostle to his companion Saint Barnabas: “Let us return and visit our brethren in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” (Acts 15:36).
The benefits of visitation, and the harms of neglecting it:
When the priest visits a family, it indicates the spirit of fatherhood and care that is in his heart toward his people. It is not right to leave the people without showing our feeling toward them — those who attend and those who are absent — without our concern!
If the priest visits a family, he can resolve its problems before they escalate, especially family problems and matters concerning falling away. How many problems reached the courts and divorce, which could have been easily solved if the priest had addressed the matter from its beginning!
A family that the priest does not visit can easily be visited by other denominations, who make them feel they are kinder to them than their own Church!! Thus they work to change them…
How many families have the priests of the Church neglected to visit, and the first to visit them was a caller from another denomination, who drew them to hear the word at his place, so they felt toward him a kind of belonging and loyalty!! What is the extent of the priest’s responsibility here?
Visitation is what fills the Church. The person you visit in his home will return the visit in the House of God. Thus as a result of visitation, gatherings grow, for you will invite those you visit to the Church and give them an idea of its meetings and their times.
Visitation is the primary source for church membership records, and for updating those records with changes that occur (marriage — birth — death — travel).
Visitation is a strong personal relationship between the priest and his people:
It is the preparatory step for accepting confessions for newcomers, and it is care for those who have confessed before. It strengthens bonds of affection between the priest and the people, prompting them to turn to him in every problem and on every occasion.
Visitation gives the priest the opportunity to know his people truly, not superficially, so he can say with the Lord Christ, “I know My own and My own know Me.” (John 10:14).
From the reality of visitation the priest can build his pastoral work on a sound practical basis, and set before him a studied field that knows its real practical needs. Even his sermons will be suitable to reality.
As a result of visitation, the priest can direct children to the Church’s catechetical schools, and likewise young men and young women and families to the meetings appropriate for them in the Church, and he can baptize children whose baptism was delayed, and base social service on his field study.
Visitation reminds those far from the Church that there is a Church, and those far from God that there is a God. It may be the beginning of awakening in the lives of people who do not care for their spirituality and their eternity.
What is visitation, and how should it be?
There is a difference between visitation and mere visiting. A priest may visit a family and speak with them about everything except God..!
But visitation is God entering the house with the priest.
Visitation is the meeting of the family or the individual with God in the presence of the servant.
Therefore be spiritual in your visitation, by first assuring yourself of the spiritual condition of each member of the family, and linking all to God.. Make sure of their attendance at liturgies and meetings, their regularity in confession and communion, and their connection to spiritual means such as prayer, spiritual readings, fasting… etc.
Your sitting with the family must be a spiritual session, but do not take a formal or boring style so that they feel you came to deliver a sermon.. Rather speak spiritually, simply, about what they need and what touches them, in a spontaneous natural way, without affectation or routine…
Have a private notebook in which you record your notes, so you follow the condition with the family in subsequent meetings, whether in church or at home…
Keep in your mind constantly that visitation is not merely a social relationship between the priest and the people, but a spiritual relationship.
There is also visitation that may have a special character, such as visiting the house in case of illness, or death, or a special problem, or to congratulate on a particular occasion. All this too you can give its spiritual character.
This reminds us of another color of visitation, namely visiting hospitals for example, and it can be in the morning, and for all — I mean not for one patient only, but for patients in general in the hospital. It may be at periodic intervals, or prompted by a special occasion.
Notes:
† Be just in your visits, for many complain that some father priests visit certain families many times until they become among the “special,” while tens or hundreds of families do not find a priest visiting them for years.
- People’s complaints increase if those visited by the priest are the wealthy or members of the church council.
- Do not let your visit to any family be tied to any financial matter, whatever the circumstances.
- How beautiful it is that the priest’s visit to any house is associated with giving, not taking, such as leaving an icon, or a Gospel, or distributing some crosses, or even a blessed morsel.
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