Chapter 12: Mary Visits Elizabeth

1Mary finished the purple and the scarlet and took it to the priest. The priest took it, blessed her, and said, “Mary, the Lord God has magnified your name, and you will be blessed among all the generations of the earth.”

2Mary rejoiced and went to her cousin Elizabeth. She knocked at the door. When Elizabeth heard her, she flung down the scarlet and rushed to the door. She opened it, blessed Mary, and said, “How is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Because look, the one within me leaped and blessed you!”

3But Mary forgot the mysteries that Gabriel the angel had told her. She looked intently into heaven and said, “Lord, who am I, that all the women of the earth will bless me?”

4She stayed with Elizabeth for three months. Day by day, her womb grew larger, and Mary became afraid. She went to her house and hid herself from the people of Israel. She was sixteen years old when these mysteries happened to her.