Mary's Magnificat & Offering Our Own - Advent 2024

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4. Text: Mary’s Magnificat & Offering Our Own

The Magnificat that Mary proclaimed was a song of praise and thanksgiving similar to the canticles of praise that holy women in the Old Testament proclaimed. We can trust that God works all things for our good, and we should praise Him for this even when we don’t fully understand His plan.

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Reflective Study Guide Questions

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.”
Lk. 1:46

1. Like many holy women in the Old Testament, Mary sang a song of praise and thanksgiving to God. How can you imitate Mary in this manner during this Advent season?

2. In the Magnificat, Mary praises God for all the good He has done. When we remember God’s goodness, it is easier for us to stay close to Him. What are some good things God has done in your life?

3. Like Mary and the holy women in the Old Testament, we can trust that God will work all things for our good. We can praise Him even when we can’t see the whole picture of His plan. How can you work on praising Him when you don’t understand His plan?

4. The Magnificat and the songs of praise in the Old Testament speak about God surprising His people with reversals in their story. How has God surprised you in your life when things felt bleak?

Text: Mary’s Magnificat & Offering Our Own

Hi there, I’m Claire Dwyer. Welcome back to The Pray More Advent Retreat. I’m really looking forward to being with you during this talk as we explore the beauty of the prayer of “The Magnificat” and the history behind it, and how to extend this beautiful mystery in this prayer in our own lives, particularly during the advent season. So let’s begin, as we always do with a prayer.

Opening Prayer

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Dear Lord, heavenly Father, we thank and praise you for the gift of our lady. We thank you for the way that she models for us true humility and magnanimity, and the way that the words of the beautiful prayer of “The Magnificat” glorify you. Help us to also make our entire lives a song of praise and glory to you in imitation of her. And may you be glorified in all things, Lord. We ask this all in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, whose birth we prepare for this advent. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

The Origin of the Magnificat Prayer

All right, well, as I said, I’m going to be exploring the beautiful prayer of “The Magnificat” with you during this talk. Well, let’s remind ourselves where this prayer came from and where it is in scripture and kind of the context around it. Of course, the words of “The Magnificat” are the song of praise and thanksgiving to God that just kind of burst forth from Mary when she greets her cousin, Elizabeth, after just saying yes to God, to saying yes to becoming the mother of Jesus. And then the angel reveals to her that her cousin Elizabeth, who’s advanced in years is with child. And that child is John the Baptist.

And so Mary filled with the Holy Spirit rushes to visit her cousin who is filled with the Holy Spirit, and John the Baptist leaps in his mother’s womb at the words that come forth from Mary’s mouth and her greeting. And Mary just erupts in this beautiful hymn of praise that is called “The Magnificat” and has now become one of the most timeless prayers of the church and is prayed during Vespers everywhere, all over the world.

And these are the words of “The Magnificat,” they’re found in Luke 1:46 through 55. “Mary says, ‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for He has looked with favor on His lowly servant. From this day, all generations will call me blessed. The Almighty has done great things for me, and Holy is His name. He has mercy on those who fear Him in every generation, He has shown the strength of His arm. He has scattered the proud in their conceit, He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things that the rich He has sent away empty. He has come to the help of His servant Israel, for He has remembered His promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and His children forever.'”

And as Mary is praying this prayer, you know, we remember she is not saying this in some kind of vacuum like she says in the prayer, she’s remembering with the Lord His promise of mercy and how it has been fulfilled throughout history through His people. Mary praised this prayer of praise in a whole tradition of women who have come before her. She is very aware of the line of women in the Old Testament who also sang songs of praise and glory to God for what He had done for them and for His people.

So Mary would’ve been well familiar with these women. She would’ve known their songs of praise and her “Magnificat” would be a continuation and a perfection of theirs. What I want to suggest as we go through this today is that we intentionally make this season of advent a time of our own Magnificat. That this season of advent is one of preparation and if we could compose this prayer of our own of thanksgiving, and wonder, and glory to God for what He has done for us in our own personal history, then we will be more prepared to receive Him when he comes at Christmas. And in this way, we will extend the beautiful prayer of our lady into our own lives and continue a tradition of praise of God for His merciful deliverance which He fulfills perfectly in His son Jesus.

Remembering the Time of Moses

So to begin with, let’s look at this lineage of Old Testament women who prefigured our lady by making their own Magnificats. And we are going to begin with Miriam, the sister of Moses. You remember that in the time of Moses, Pharaoh had ordered that all of the Hebrew men, male children would be killed upon birth. But Miriam’s mother, after delivering Moses, manages to hide him for about three months. And when it becomes too hard to keep him a secret anymore, she and Miriam come up with a plan and they put Moses in the river where they knew that Pharaoh’s daughter would be in this little basket. And then Miriam hides in the rushes. And when Pharaoh’s daughter discovers this beautiful baby in the basket, there’s Miriam saying, “Hey, would you like me to find a nursemaid to take care of this baby?” And so she does and of course it’s her mother. And so Moses goes home to his mother for about three years until he’s old enough to go and live in Pharaoh’s household as one of her, one of his own.

While later when Moses was called by God to lead His people out of slavery in Egypt, he does so not alone. Moses does this with the help of his brother Aaron and his sister Miriam. It says in the book of Micah, “For I, God brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage and I set before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.” And Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam together led the people out of Egypt.

So Miriam was one of the leaders during the time of Israel’s deliverance. After the Israelites were saved from the pursuit of Pharaoh’s armies through the parting of the Red Sea, Miriam rejoices at this miraculous turn of events and she leads the Hebrew women in praise. It says in Exodus 15:20 and 21, “Then Miriam the prophetess took a timbrel in her hand and all the women went out after her with timbrels and dancing. And Miriam said to them, ‘Sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously the horse and His rider He has thrown into the sea.'”

Whispers of Mary

My friend Gayle Somers wrote a wonderful book called, “Whispers of Mary.” And some of what I talk about in this talk is taken from her book “Whispers of Mary.” And in that book she quotes Father Damasus Winzen, who says of Miriam’s song. “This is the hour when the divine office is born, the joy of salvation must find its expression in the liturgy, meaning the common public worship of God’s people.” So here for the first time, we see common public worship led by a woman. And I just think it’s astonishing to make that connection that you could say in a way that this is when the divine office is born in Miriam’s Song of Praise. And Gayle herself says, “We have heard feminine voices already in scripture from Eve and Sarah, but we have not heard a feminine voicing praise of God. Miriam’s is the first. It will not be the last.

True enough a judge of Israel, Deborah, would be the next to sing a hymn of praise and celebration.” And Deborah composes a song of praise to God after he delivers Israel from a much stronger Canaanite army. After winning this particular battle against the Canaanites, Barak, who is the Israelites military general, and Deborah, who is one of the judges, who was invited and asked by Barak to go with him into battle, not to fight, but really to be an encouragement with him. They defeat the Canaanites and then they have this of praise. And this is known as Deborah’s Song and it’s from Judges chapter five. And I’ll just read you a short part of it. “When the princes in Israel take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves praise the Lord, hear this, you kings, listen you rulers even I, I will sing to the Lord, I will praise the Lord, the God of Israel in song.”

The Story of Hannah

And then we have Hannah. Hannah was a married woman who longed for a child. Her husband loved her very much. He had two wives. One was fertile and one was not and that was Hannah. And this was a source of tremendous suffering for her. Her barrenness was such a cross for her. Eli, the priest sees her lamenting and praying in the temple, crying out to God about her longing for a child, promising to God that if he were to grant her a child, she would give the baby back to Him. And Eli, who sees her mouth moving, they can’t hear what she’s saying, thinks that she’s drunk. And she humbly tells him, “I’m not drunk.” She says, “I’ve been pouring out my anxieties to the Lord” and tells Him about the desires of her heart. And Eli blesses her and he prays for her. He prays that her petition will be heard by the Lord.

And in fact, Hannah would soon after give birth to a son, Samuel. And after she weed him, she brought him to the temple just as she had promised that she would to be raised up by Eli and live a life of priestly service. At the time that Hannah brings her son Samuel back to the temple and presents him to Eli to leave him there, she sings a song of praise as well. And I just want you to listen to this and see how closely it foreshadows Mary’s Magnificat,

“My heart rejoices in the Lord. In the Lord, my horn is lifted high, my mouth boasts over my enemies for I delight in your deliverance. There is no one holy like the Lord, there is no one besides you, there is no rock like our God. Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the Lord is a God who knows, and by Him deeds are weighed. The bows of the warriors are broken. But those who stumbled are armed with strength. Those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who are hungry are hungry no more. She who was barren has born seven children, but she who has many sons pines away.

The Lord brings death and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and raises up. The Lord sends poverty and wealth. He humbles and He exalts. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the lords. On them, He has set the world. He will guard the feet of his faithful servants.

But the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness. It is not by strength that one prevails. Those who oppose the Lord will be broken. The most high will thunder from heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to His king and exalt the horn of His anointed.”

And we just hear in this song how God is a God of reversals like that things are just not what they seem. Hannah’s words invite us to see that God has a special place in his heart for the lowly and the poor, and that he has a plan for them. And we will hear this again in the Magnificat of Mary.

The Story of Judith

And then finally, the beautiful widow, Judith, who bravely kills the Assyrian general camped outside her town. Her town was the gateway actually to Jerusalem. And that was the ultimate goal of the Assyrian conquest. But they knew they had to conquer this town first, so they had cut off the water supply. And the Jewish people in their thirst and in their desperation are getting ready to surrender to the Assyrians and this horrifies Judith, because she’s a prayerful woman who believes in God’s promises.

She encourages her people to trust God. And then she herself goes into the enemy camp and murders the General Holofernes while he’s drunk, cutting off his head and then carrying it out to her people who rejoice and the entire town goes to Jerusalem for a big celebration. And while she’s there, Judith leads the people in dance and song. And this is part of her hymn of praise. And this is from chapter 16 of the “Book of Judith.”

She sings, “I will sing a new song to my God. Oh Lord, great are you and glorious, marvelous in power and unpassable, let your every creature serve you for you spoke and they were made. You sent forth your spirit and it created them. No one can resist your voice for the mountains to their bases are tossed with waters. The rocks like wax melt before your glance. But to those who fear you, you will show mercy. Though the sweet fragrance of every sacrifice is a trifle and the fat of all burnt offerings but little in your sight, one who fears the Lord is forever great.”

Remembering God’s Love

And then, of course, there’s Mary, who surely was thinking not only of herself as she’s saying the words of her own Magnificat, but all of those who came before her and all of those who would come after her. She knew her history. She knew that God was continuing a mighty work and that she was part of this whole sweeping story of salvation. And the moment of her Magnificat had come to this pivotal point that everything that had happened to her people and in the lives of those women who came before her, all of it had led to this moment.

And it is really important, I think in all of our liturgical celebrations that we too remember. That we remember not only what God has done for His people, but for us in our lives, how He has saved us, how He has purified us, how He has prepared us and delivered us. And this is because in our fallen world, we forget. Sin comes from forgetting God’s promises and the fact that He is who He says He is, and He does what He says that He will do. But when we remember God’s goodness, we tend to stay closer to Him and within His will. It’s when we forget that we start to live outside of His will and we fall into sin.

So we are at our best when we remember things and we make them present in our midst again through our remembrance of them. We do this in our everyday lives, of course, right? We take pictures, we hang them on our walls and put them on our desks and our tables. We keep trophies. We make shadow boxes and photo albums. As a society, we put up plaques and statues to remind us, to mark places, and people and events. We mark dates on our calendars. We set them aside. And we do this as a church too. This is really what it means to live liturgically.

I love these words of Monsignor Charles Pope when he says, “God, you are central in our lives. We tell time by what you have done. Every week begins on Sunday in your house. In all the feasts, we remember your saving works of the past and permit those acts to be present to us. We give you thanks for what you have done. We remember, and we praise you. We celebrate your place in our life and we frame our lives around what you have done in our time and in our history. We love you, Lord. And not only do we celebrate what you’ve done, we celebrate you. We gather to praise you at your holy house and give you glory every Sunday in feast day. You are part of our lives. You are integral to them. We make room for you at our tables and on our calendar. You are ever before us. We also praise you for what you have done in the lives of the saints. And we celebrate their lives too. Our lives intersect with your salvation history. We tell time by you and what you have done.”

Don’t you just love that? It is such a reminder of what it truly means to live liturgically and to live fully aware of what God has done in our history, in our personal histories, and in the history of the church. And in remembering that we should, like Mary, and like all of the women who came before her, we should sing our songs to praise in praise of God, even if we can’t see the whole picture of what God is doing in our lives. Because sometimes we just can only see the moment and we don’t see the whole grand story. But we can trust that he’s working all things for good and we can praise him in anticipation of how all of this is going to come together for our good and his glory.

Make Your Own Magnificat

So I really encourage you to mark this advent season by journaling, writing, maybe even singing a song of praise to God, a hymn of praise, a prayer of praise and thanksgiving. Make your own Magnificat this advent. Think and pray about this. How has God surprised you with reversals in your own story when everything looked lost? How did he rescue you? How has he raised up with is small in your life? How has he filled you with good things? What has he done for you? Extend the song of praise into your own life and live this advent like Mary and like all of those who came before her. Let’s end with a prayer.

Closing Prayer

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord God, we claim your promises. We thank you for being true to your word. Help us to remember the ways that you have kept your word in our lives, the graces that you have poured down upon us, the mercies that you have shown us. Help us to live lives remembering and marking all of the sacred things that you have done for us in the ways that you have come to us. And to celebrate this advent in the spirit of remembrance and celebration. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

About Claire Dwyer

Because each of us is called to co-create a masterpiece of our lives in cooperation with God, Claire Dwyer writes and speaks at the intersection of creative and spiritual direction. She loves putting words and stories, written and spoken, in service of the Gospel and helping others do the same. Claire is the author of This Present Paradise: A Spiritual Journey with St. Elizabeth of the Trinity and the creator of the Let Yourself Be Loved Women’s Retreat. She serves as content editor of SpiritiualDirection.com and is the co-founder and content director of Write These Words and the PraiseWriters Catholic Writer’s Community. She lives in Phoenix with her family. Follow her—and receive a free“Be Loved” Litany—at ClaireDwyer.com .