Mary’s song of praise recounted in Luk 1:46-55.
This name comes from the first word in the Vulgate version, Magnificat mea anima, “Magnify my soul.” The song faithfully follows the OT poetry, with a striking similarity to Hannah’s prayer (1Sa 2:1-10).
Source: Hispanic World Bible Dictionary
Mary’s song of praise, Luke 1:46-56. It is one of the most beautiful and grandiose in the Bible, because it is the “song of humility”, of the “humble handmaid of the Lord”: (Luke 1:48). Because of her humility, a wonderful prophecy is made of the Virgin Mary: “All generations will call her blessed”; prophecy that has been fulfilled very well in the last 2,000 years, because the Virgin Mary is the woman in the history of humanity to whom more poetry and songs, and paintings and sculptures, and chapels and basilicas and cathedrals have been dedicated, to call her “blessed” with all forms of art, in the five continents. and, every second of every day, during these 2,000 years someone has been and is saying “Hail, Mary, full of grace.” How well has this prophecy of Luke 1:48 been fulfilled so far!
Christian Bible Dictionary
Dr. J. Dominguez
http://bible.com/dictionary/
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
Term by which the prayer made by †¢Mary upon receiving the annunciation from the angel †¢Gabriel who told her that she would be the mother of the †¢Messiah is known. He is so called because in Latin it reads † œMagnificat anima mea Domini… † († œMy soul magnifies the Lord †). A Latin manuscript of Luke puts the M.’s words as said by †¢Elisabet, but the vast majority of known documentation points to them as coming from Mary.
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
type, MUSI
vet, Name given to the song that Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus, composed in joyful praise. She receives this name from the word with which she begins in the Latin Vulgate version (Lk. 1: 46-55). In this canticle, Mary acknowledges that God is her Savior (Lk. 1:47) and is grateful for the blessedness of which she has been the object (Lk. 1: 48-50); she proclaims the greatness of God in His protection of the humble and afflicted, and in his judgment against the proud in heart (Lk. 1: 51-53); she connects the birth of the Messiah with the eschatological blessing of Israel (Luke 1:54, 55). This beautiful poem is steeped in the knowledge of God in the OT Scriptures, and shows that Mary was an attentive student of God’s Word.
Source: New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
Hymn attributed to Mary, at the time of visiting her cousin Elizabeth, whose gestation the angel gives as a sign and which appears in Lc. 1. 46-53 (See Hymns 1 and Marianas. Prayers 2)
Pedro Chico González, Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy, Editorial Bruño, Lima, Peru 2006
Source: Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy
In the context of God’s salvific plans
Mary’s faith (Lk 1,45) and her availability before God’s salvific plans are expressed in the song of the “Magnificat” (Lk 1,46-55). Mary’s greeting to Elizabeth is the bearer of messianic joy and is made explicit and amplified by the Magnificat. Mary can sing the definitive action of the Holy Spirit, because she has unconditionally believed in this action. In the evangelical hymn, the interiority of Mary (already manifested in the annunciation) becomes transparent, as a recapitulation and overcoming of the experiences of ancient Israel and as a summary of the messianic hopes, sung with the joy of seeing them already turned into reality.
Two closely related parts can be noted: the “handmaid” sings “the great things” that God the Savior has done (Lk 1:46-50); God’s salvific action is manifested in the poor, in contrast to the powerful (Lk 1,51-55). The writing takes place in the context of the infancy gospel according to Saint Luke (Lk 1-2). In this context, the Marian canticle repeats and deepens its total openness to the Word of God, its “yes” to the Word (Lk 1,38) as the maximum expression of faith in God (Lk 1,45), concretized in a service of charity (Lk 1,39) that becomes an instrument of the grace of the Spirit (Lk 1,41).
The messianic ideas and hopes sung by Mary have already been fulfilled in Christ the Emmanuel. God is Savior (Lk 1,47), holy (Lk 1,49), powerful (Lk 1,49.51), merciful (Lk 1,54), who has his preferences for the poor (Lk 1,52-53) and he is faithful to his promises (Lk 1,55). The text of Lk 1:47-55 is like a parallel to the themes that appear in the Annunciation: joy, power of God’s holiness, universal salvation, humility or (biblical) poverty of the creature, divine mercy according to the messianic promises… In the Magnificat everything springs from the supernatural experience that Mary has had since the Annunciation “he has done great things for me” (Lk 2,51).
Mary follows the tradition of the hymns of each age of salvation history, especially the psalms (cf. Ps 98) and of the holy women (cf. 1Sam 2,1-10), which express an experience similar to that of the Exodus, and sing the mercy of God in favor of his people, waiting for the Messiah Savior, through whom full salvation will be received. Mary sings and is the bearer of this already present salvific announcement. Luke’s writing corresponds to a historical and salvific fact, narrated literaryly with a background of Old Testament references (as he did in the story of the Annunciation), which corresponds to the contemplative attitude of Mary (cf. Lk 2,19.51).
praying virgin
In this song, Mary expresses the deepest feelings of the prayer: praise to God, gratitude, faith, trust, humility (biblical poverty), recognition of God’s mercy, union with all humanity and with all of salvation history. In this way, it is indicated that “to adore God is to praise him, exalt him and humble himself, as Mary does in the Magnificat, confessing with gratitude that he has done great things and that his name is holy” (CCC 2097) .
The “Mother of the Lord” is also the “Praying Virgin”, since “the Magnificat is the prayer par excellence of Mary, the song of the messianic times, in which the exaltation of the old and the new Israel converge” (MC 18 ). “In these sublime words, which are at the same time very simple and totally inspired by the sacred texts of the people of Israel, the personal experience of Mary is glimpsed, the ecstasy of her heart” (RMa 36).
The joy sung in the Magnificat is a “Paschal” joy, which goes from humiliation to exaltation, from “kenosis” to glorification, as an association with Christ (meeting his same fate, participating in his same “sword” Lc 2.35). God “has done great things” in Mary, because he has shown in her that the “poor” are “blessed”. What God has done in Mary is for the good of all generations. The “let it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1,38) is the Marian and ecclesial provision for God to continue doing “great things” in the history of salvation.
The canticle of Mary and the Church
The “Magnificat” has been, since the first centuries, the canticle of the Church on the way. It is, then, a fact of grace that continues to affect history. “The Virgin Mother is constantly present in this journey of faith of the People of God towards the light. This is demonstrated in a special way by the canticle of the Magnificat which, coming out of Mary’s deep faith in her visitation, never ceases to vibrate in the heart of the Church throughout the centuries. She proves it in the daily recitation of it in the liturgy of vespers and in many other moments of devotion both personal and communal” (RMa 35). The Church learns the Easter way, passing through “humiliation” to “exaltation”, through biblical “poverty” to salvation.
The experiences of Mary, expressed in the Magnificat, are like the personification of the experiences of the Church. The Church, reciting the Magnificat, with and like Mary, evokes the messianic promises of the Old Testament and takes into account that all peoples are waiting for the Savior. For this she gives thanks for the history of salvation (Lk 1,46-48), which demonstrates divine omnipotence and mercy (Lk 1,49-53), and which begins the messianic kingdom (Lk 1,54-55). .
The Magnificat continues to be, at the same time, “the canticle of the Mother of God and that of the Church, the canticle of the Daughter of Zion and of the new People of God” (CEC 2619). The Church considers it as “a song of thanksgiving for the fullness of graces poured out in the economy of salvation, a song of the “poor” whose hope has been filled with the fulfillment of the promises” (ibid.). The “poverty” sung in the Magnificat is the “kenosis” of one who is “full of grace” as the fruit of Christ’s death and resurrection. The Church, through a pilgrimage route, encounters Mary who “precedes with her light the pilgrim People of God as a sign of hope” (LG 68).
References Annunciation, praise to God, hope, Marian spirituality, Messiah, psalms, Virgin Mary.
Reading of CEC documents 2097, 2619, 2622.
Bibliography AA.VV., The Magnificat, Theology and Spirituality; Ephemerides Mariologicae 36 (1986) n.3; JM BOVER, The “Magnificat”, its structure and its mariological significance Estudios Marianos 19 (1945) 31-43; L. CASTAN LACOMA, The Beatitudes of Mary (Madrid 1971); J. ESQUERDA BIFET, Magnificat and psalms Marian and ecclesial spirituality and psychology Estudios Marianos 38 (1974) 53-71; I. RUBBER, The Magnificat, song of salvation (BAC, Madrid, 1982); R.Mª LOPEZ MELUS, Pray with Maria and pray to Maria (Onda 1984); Idem, María de Nazareth, the true disciple (Madrid, PPC, 1991); E. PERETTO, Magnificat, in New Dictionary of Mariology (Madrid, Paulinas, 1988) 1224-1237.
(ESQUERDA BIFET, Juan, Dictionary of Evangelization, BAC, Madrid, 1998)
Source: Dictionary of Evangelization
DJN
It is the first Latin word with which the song or hymn of praise and thanksgiving that the Virgin Mary uttered when visiting Elizabeth begins (Lk 1:46-55). The hymn speaks of God’s mercy, of his preference for the poor and the humble, of his fidelity to the promises. Mary sings of God’s grace and generosity towards her, her mercy and her power, manifested in the history of salvation. This song is a summary of the Bible, the synthesis of the history of salvation.
When reflecting on the Magnificat, rather than thinking of a composition of Mary, on the occasion of the visit to her relative Elizabeth, Bible scholars believe that it is a sacred canticle that comes from the primitive Judeo-Christian community and expresses the faith of those first followers of Jesus who already felt in love with their mother.
Although the Magnificat was not composed by Mary, it is enough for us to know that the evangelist attributes such sentiments to her. This offers a solid basis for describing…