“And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house.”
Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home — the three months places Mary's return just before or at the time of John's birth. The quiet domestic stay communicates the ordinary human context in which the extraordinary divine action takes place. Mary returns home carrying the Son of God, having spent three months with Elizabeth, both women bearing children of miraculous origin, both waiting for the births that will change everything.
Church Fathers on Luke 1:56
Mary abode with Elisabeth until she had accomplished the time of her bringing forth; as it is said, And Mary abode, &c.
For in the sixth month of the conception of the forerunner, the Angel came to Mary, and she abode with Elisabeth three months, and so the nine months are completed.
For the chaste soul which conceives a desire of the spiritual word must of necessity submit to the yoke of heavenly discipline, and sojourning for the days as it were of three months in the same place, cease not to persevere until it is illuminated by the light of faith, hope, and charity.
Read all 6 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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