Today, all the pilgrims that set out for the mountain of Montserrat are also going to visit the Virgin Mary. They bring along their joys and their hopes, the pains and sorrows of their lives, of their families, of the community where they live their own faith. Pilgrimage is like a life metaphor. We leave our home, we set forth —quite often with effort and abnegation—, but we keep marching on with joy and decision for we know that, at the end of our journey, Someone is waiting for us.

And, thus, when arriving to Montserrat, before the venerable image of the Virgin Mary, the pilgrim realizes that, in fact, it is the Virgin Mary who is visiting him. Mary comes out to meet us from the bottom of our heart. She “decidedly” comes to visit us to bring us her Son Jesus Christ, to announce us that God has given us his own Son to redeem us from sin and death.

—We have also got to be “a-visiting” those we find in our way through life.