Visitation

“ When we pray, in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick, that God would ‘preserve and continue this sick member in the unity of the Church,’ the prayer breathes the very spirit of ancient piety. It is an unspeakable help, in dealing with a sick man, to be able to appeal to his own conscious and sincere membership in the Body of Christ. The Visitation Office is ‘peculiarly a ministration for those who have been trained beforehand in the fulness of Church life and privileges.’74 Herein, as often, the Prayer-book sets up an ideal standard. ”

“ Ecclesiastical visitations, originally the periodical journeys of personal inspection to ascertain the temporal and spiritual condition of each parish, form part of the functions of an archbishop, a bishop and an archdeacon. All charitable corporations are at law subject to visitation ”

“ I have an humble request to your lordship, that you will please to excuse me if I cannot be at the triennial visitation; for, my lord [1] and lady continually residing at the lodge, I am obliged to a constant attendance there. ”

“ Finally, pastoral visitation is a chief means of blessing and cementing the pastoral relation. Of late years pastorates have become of short duration. Hardly is a minister settled and fairly at work before the question of a change begins to be agitated. May not the decline of pastoral visitation, so faithfully done by many of our fathers in the ministry, be in part an explanation of this? The pastor’s personal religious life is not brought into contact with his people; as the result, their religious confidence is not won, and his ministry is not in sympathy with their needs. ”

“ The Visitation is the personal inspection of institutions, churches, religious establishments and their personnel, to correct abuses and enforce the observation of rules. Through this The Visitation. Congregation the pope, as bishop of Rome, made the inspection of his diocese; it is for this reason that he was president of this commission, the most important member of which was the cardinal vicar. He takes the place of the pope in the administration of the diocese of Rome; he has his own offices and diocesan assistants as in other bishoprics. ”

“ There is a day of visitation coming, a day of enquiry and discovery, a searching day, which will bring to light, to a true light, every man, and every man's work. 2. The day of visitation will be a day of desolation to all wicked people, when all their comforts and hopes will be lost and gone, and buried in ruin, and themselves left desolate. 3. Impenitent sinners will be utterly at a loss, and will not know what to do in the day of visitation and desolation. They cannot fly and hide themselves, cannot fight it out and defend themselves ”

“ In addition to the usual services, the Bishop preached a sermon in the chapter-house to the inmates, and his secretary often entered the text in the brief entry of the visitation made in the episcopal register—possibly with a view to check the Bishop giving the like discourse on the next occasion. The Bishop, with whom was generally associated some diocesan official as assessor, began the visitation by asking for a report from the superior as to the general condition of the house, both temporal and spiritual, and as to the conduct of the inmates. ”

“ "I s'pose you couldn't get 'em to bring it in 'Death by the Visitation of God,' could you, Biggs?" suggested Lord Peter. "Sort of judgment for wantin' to marry into our family, what?" ”

“ I trust there are many under that Visitation, which if faithfully attended to, will make them quick of Understanding in the Fear of the Lord, and qualify with Firmness to be true Patterns of the Christian Life, who in Living and Walking may hold forth an Invitation to others, to come out of the Entanglements of the Spirit of this World. ”

“ for in time of temptation they will be very needful for thee.
What thou understandest not when thou readest, thou shalt know in the day of visitation. ”

“ The visitation documents are particularly useful. Where full detecta are preserved, the moral state of a house is vividly pictured; there you may see the unworthy Prioress, whose bad example or weak rule has led her flock astray; there the nuns conniving at a love affair and assisting an elopement, or complaining bitterly of the dishonour wrought upon their house. If the register of visitations be a full one, it is possible to form an approximately exact estimate of the moral condition of all the nunneries in a particular diocese at a particular time, in so far as it was known to the Bishop. ”

“ The inspiring and organizing of such aggressive Christian labor as faithful visitation from house to house are among the most important duties of the pastor, and no form of Christian activity is more fruitful in blessed results, both in the higher Christian development of the visitors and in the awakening and conversion of those who are visited. ”

“ In the hereditary and tribe waren, the visitation continues at intervals through life in the person once influenced, and it is always regarded as a proof of divine favour, being seldom exercised but for beneficent purposes. ”

“ Nor do the actions of men in their public and private capacities contradict their language. The time was, when this nation, sensible how highly it had been blessed by Providence, and deeply grateful to the Giver of all good, made it a rule to recognise the hand of God in all things. When His chastisements were upon the land, there was a fast; when deliverance was vouchsafed, there was a thanksgiving; every visitation was received as a just infliction; every escape as an unmerited blessing. ”

“ The story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome, as, on Christmas Eve in an old house, a strange tale should essentially be, I remember no comment uttered till somebody happened to say that it was the only case he had met in which such a visitation had fallen on a child. ”

“ The usual times for these visitations were Easter and Michaelmas. The bishops also commonly held visitations in person, or by vicars-general or chancellors, once every third year throughout their dioceses. Yet at the semiannual visitations of the archdeacon as well as at the triennial visitations of the bishop, the mode of procedure, the class of offences, the parish officers summoned, the discipline exercised—all were the same, the bishop's court being simply substituted for the time being for that of the archdeacon. ”

“ An able man may know all about the history, the habitat, the various species, the breeds, the diseases, and the prices of sheep, and yet be nothing at all of a true shepherd. And so may a minister.
2. Pastoral visitation, combined with personal dealing, is by far the best way of watching for souls. I well remember when I first began my ministry in this congregation, how much I was impressed with what one of the ablest and best of our then ministers was reported to have testified on his deathbed. ”

“ Such troubles are called visitations, for it is in this way that God visits His wandering children, and seeks to bring them back to the right way. “For, whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth” (Hebr. 12, 6) . Millions of the blessed would not now be in heaven, if God had not visited them with tribulations in this world. ”

“ The Catholics, descended from the oldest French and Spanish families, are numerous and influential. They have a fine hospital, orphan asylums, a Jesuit college near the city, where the young men are educated, and a spacious Convent of the Visitation for young ladies. ”

“ But men should often be put in remembrance to take order for the settling of their temporal estates, while they are in health. And the minister should not omit earnestly to move such sick persons, as are of ability, to be liberal to the poor.” (See Absolution, Communion of Sick, Visitation of Sick.)
SIDESMAN. It was usual for bishops in their visitations, to summon some credible persons out of every parish, whom they examined on oath concerning the condition of the church, and other affairs relating to it. ”

“ Have then any visitations that may probably be supposed, by their magnitude and extraordinary character, to have had such an origin, been experienced, within the last half century, by the nations of Christendom? for to them, more particularly, as forming the professing church, must such judgments belong. ”

“ But even in their cloistered sphere the Visitation nuns clung to useful, active work, and became a teaching order. They and the Ursulines (who in Italy, at least, are cloistered) shared this task among them till the more modern order of the "Sacred Heart" almost monopolized it. I have myself known women of the most tried virtue and rare learning among the "Visitandines." Their rule is less strict about visitors, and even strangers are admitted to the parlor without a curtain being drawn behind the grating. ”

“ By frequent visitations alone can such a society expect to be able to direct wisely and lead successfully its missions. For, it is highly desirable, both in the interests of the mission itself, of the society and of the home churches that at least some of the directors of the society should know personally and well each mission supported through them. At no greater intervals than five years such a visitation should be planned for every mission. I am confident that they would add largely to the efficiency of our missionary work and increase the interest of home churches in their foreign work. ”

“ And may He, who blesses the feeblest efforts made in dependence on His gracious aid, and for the honour of His great name, bless this humble endeavour to rouse some to a more active and faithful discharge of the duties of their stations; and to excite in others a spirit of enquiry, and draw forth from them a declaration of opinion, as to the course which this Christian people should adopt under the present Divine visitation. England has been long highly favoured and greatly blessed ”

“ In 1995, the Superior Court issued an oral ruling and entered a visitation decree ordering visitation one weekend per month, one week during the summer, and four hours on both of the petitioning grandparents' birthdays. ”

“ From these visitations as judgments, we have an especial promise of protection, and we trust in the midst of them some good may spring up; at all events, we feel that we shall have quite met our dear Lord’s mind in giving this people a last opportunity of hearing, ere their house is left unto them desolate. ”

“ MADAME EGLENTYNE
A. Raw Material
1. Chaucer's description of the Prioress in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.
2. Miscellaneous visitation reports in episcopal registers. On these registers, and in particular the visitation documents therein, see R.C. Fowler, Episcopal Registers of England and Wales (S.P.C.K. Helps for [pg 184] Students of History, No. 1) , G.G. Coulton, The Interpretation of Visitation Documents (Eng. Hist. Review, 1914) , and c. ”

“ Sick-bed visits especially should not be allowed to become visitations. Many a person with a chance for recovery has literally been talked into his grave by well-meaning callers. Intelligent nurses will quietly ask such people to remain away. ”

“ Destruction was effected after visitation, for visitation always precedes. ”

“ This is the eighth harbour I have been anchored in, this week, and in six I have held services; and except in entering Little Coney Arm, have encountered neither difficulty nor delay. The winds have been generally fair, the weather always fine; the people, without exception, grateful for our visits and services. Ninety-two persons of various ages have been formally received into the Church; eight couples married; one person admitted to the Lord's Supper; nearly one hundred and eighty of all ages have been present at the services. ”

“ Such will be the benefits of a regular and humble attendance on the services of the Sanctuary. And bring your children with you: train them up to go regularly to church on the Lord's Day: let them never think of staying at home, except for illness. ”

“ If the church is indeed God's house, let the servants of the Master dispense His hospitalities in such a manner as befits His divine character, remembering that the world judges of Him through them. Let fathers and mothers be on the watch to speak kindly words to such homeless wanderers as may roam within the circle of their influence. If a stranger is introduced into the family pew, let him be no longer a stranger, but a guest. ”

“ That which a young girl who is a visitor in any family should first of all observe, is the wishes and convenience of the older people of the household. If the friend she is visiting should show too much disposition to make everything about the house bend to the occasion of the visit, the visitor should deprecate this, both by word and example. ”

“ A familiar visit will always begin more pleasantly, if the visiter enquires of the servant at the door if the lady she wishes to see is at home, and then goes into the parlour, and stays there till she has sent her name, and ascertained that she can be received up-stairs. ”

“ The usages of all Europe, those of the English excepted, differ from our own on the subject of visits. There the stranger, or the latest arrival, is expected to make the first visit, and an inquiry for your address is always taken for an intimation that your acquaintance would be acceptable. Many, perhaps most Americans, lose a great deal through their provincial breeding, in this respect, in waiting for attentions that it is their duty to invite, by putting themselves in the way of receiving them. ”

“ These repeated circlings of the altar, I was told, are intended as so many visits, each time they go round having the value of a visit. Many of these people seek the Pardon not only for themselves, but for friends who are unable to come. The absent confess and communicate at their parish church at home, and unite their intention with that of the person who makes the visit for them. ”