After
the Annunciation, Mary went out in haste to her cousin Elizabeth. The mere greeting of Mary, who had in her womb
the Word of God made flesh, made the infant in Elizabeth’s womb leap for
joy. Elizabeth proclaimed Mary
blessed. And Mary spoke her beautiful
Magnificat.
Since Seminary, I’ve prayed the Magnificat every day. The Canticle
of Mary as it is sometimes called, is part of the Church’s official Evening
Prayer, and is prayed every day by priests and religious, all over the
world. No matter what time of day it is,
two things are true. Somewhere in the
world, a priest is celebrating Mass, and he is praying his breviary. So along with the other prayers of the
Church, the Magnficat is being sung all day, every day.
It is always inspiring to pray Evening Prayer with a group of
priests. The Psalms change every day, so
for the recitation of the Psalms we hold our prayer books close. But, when we get to the Magnificat, all or
most of the priests close their books, and often close their eyes and recite
these words of the Blessed Mother from memory, or should I say, from their
hearts.
I’ve known priests to burst into the magnificat at times of great joy
in their own lives. The memorization of
a prayer, a pslam, or another line of scripture can be a powerful thing. Carving
the words of Scripture upon our hearts, we make a place for God to dwell.
Mary herself must have had some scripture memorized, for her
Magnficat echoes the song of Hannah from the first book of Samuel. After prayering for many years through a time
of barrenness, Hannah, conceived in her old age, and offered a song of
thanksgiving to God. She praises God as
the helper of the weak, who casts down the mighty and raises up the lowly, and
who alone is the source of true strength.
And Hannah’s song was richly inspired by verses from the Torah. So she
too, must have known some scripture.
Pope Benedict wrote, “Mary is the great believer who humbly
offered herself to God as an empty vessel for him to use in his mysterious
plan. She did not try to live according
to human calculation, but put herself completely at the disposal of God’s
mysterious, incomprehensible design. All
she wanted to be was the instrument and servant of the Word. Despite the fear of the unknown, despite all
of the inexplicable demands God made on her, she believed, even as she faced a
task that no other human being had ever, or would ever have again, to mother
the incarnate Son of God.”
May each of us, like Mary, become an empty vessel to be used in
God’s mysterious plan. May we trust in
God amidst all of our fears, and be filled with great joy in his service, for
the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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