'Having arrived at that house, she saluted her cousin: "She entered into the house of Zachary, and saluted Elizabeth." And as St. Ambrose remarks, Mary was the first to salute Elizabeth: "Prior salutavit." But the visit of the blessed Virgin was not like the visits of the worldly, which, for the most part, consist in ceremonies and false display; the visit of Mary brought into that house an abundance of graces. For at her first entrance, and at that first salutation, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and John was delivered from guilt and sanctified, and therefore gave that sign of joy, exulting in the womb of his mother; for he wished in this way to make known the grace received by means of the blessed Virgin; as Elizabeth herself declared: "As soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy."

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori