Luky;
The Bible states that the glorious song in praise of God we know as the Magnificat was sung by Mary of Nazareth during her visit to her cousin Elizabeth. Mary made this response to the greeting of Elizabeth, who was then expecting her son, John (known in later years as the Baptist).
Biblical scholars are not unanimous in their belief that Mary herself composed that magnificent incantation. Some suggest the Magnificat represents Luke the evangelist's understanding of the song of praise sung by Hannah (1 Samuel 2; 1 - 10), suitably altered to include the miracle of the incarnation - Christ's becoming flesh in Mary's womb through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The wife of Elkanah the Zuphite, Hannah had been universally believed to be barren until she conceived her son Samuel. After weaning him when he was aged three, she presented him to the high priest Eli and left him to serve at the temple of the Lord.
There are numerous points of similarity between Hannah's canticle in the Old Testament and Mary's in the New (Luke 1; 46 - 55). Nevertheless, it does not follow that Luke, who though erudite as befitted the doctor of medicine (but not divinity) which he was, is responsible for the existence of the Magnificat.
During her childhood Mary would have been instructed in prayer by her parents, inspired by her Creator and fired by her personal devotion. Mary would have had the opportunity to grow in wisdom and grace. As a devout worshipper, Mary would have been familiar with Hannah's canticle herself. This makes it seem unlikely that Luke rather than Mary herself may be responsible for the words of the Magnificat as found in the Bible.
Striking to recall, Hannah's son Samuel became the first prophet to forecast the coming of Christ the Redeemer, while Elizabeth's son John would be the last person to herald His coming. John baptised the multitude and preached on the banks of the river Jordan as Christ was about to embark upon His public life. Christ even sought baptism from this beloved cousin.
The remembrance of the Visitation, described in churches as the feast of the Visitation, is held annually on 31 May. As evidence of Mary of Nazareth's yearning to serve anyone in need, this event is as indicative of her nature as was Christ's first miracle at Cana, which He performed at her behest. Despite her concern for her own unborn Child, Mary undertook the journey to Ain Karim, home of her cousin, to take care of Elizabeth and her unborn child for three months. When the women greeted, Elizabeth was divinely inspired to acknowledge the motherhood to the Divine which God had bestowed on Mary, who in her response intoned the Magnificat.
Allowing the needs of others to precede her own is Mary's own vision - in her humility, she became everything to God the Creator. The poet Jessica Powers compares Mary to a pool of limpid water, crystal clear, reflecting neither impurity nor imperfection but mirroring only God's greatness:
There was nothing in the Virgin's soul
That belonged to the Virgin -
No word, no thought, no image, no intent,
She was a pure, transparent pool reflecting
God, only God.
She held His burnished day, she held His night
Of planet-glow or shade inscrutable.
God was her sky and she who mirrored Him
Became His firmament.
Powers believes that Mary's littleness is at once her greatness, since it causes her to open her mind and her life to God's design and hold back nothing for herself. 'When I so much as turn my thoughts towards her, my spirit is enisled in her repose,' the poet continues. Nevertheless Mary's visit to Elizabeth shows that Mary's prayerful serenity is accompanied by diligence and practicality.
In the Magnificat Mary admitted she knew that all generations would call her blessed. Despite her humility she rejoiced in the thought that in this way her praises would be sung for all eternity. This had nothing to do with personal pride. Seeing God as the only author of her good fortune, she regards any blessings she may receive on this account as belonging to God as a direct consequence of the marvels that He has worked within her.
In November 1948 in Sign magazine a poet identified as Sister Agnes likewise refers to the fruitful 'emptiness' within Mary.
It is just as she said
The day she bowed her head in Elizabeth's room
When her womb rang out with the Word
Bounding against the pure curve of her emptiness like a bell
Giving tongue to her young blessedness.
It was during that Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth in Ain Karim that the unborn cousins first made contact as John leapt in Elizabeth's womb. The martyred priest-poet Robert Southwell provides us with this inspiring word picture of that stirring moment;
With secret signs the children greet each other,
But open praise each leaveth to his mother.
We know from the Bible that Jesus greatly approved of, and loved his cousin. Though St. Stephen is often regarded as the first martyr of the New Testament, it was really John who would be the first of Christ' supporters to be martyred for courageously refusing to be silenced in the cause of righteousness. The Visitation is therefore a very significant feast with links leading both back in history and indicating Christ's public life and ultimate suffering and death. The feast celebrates the humanity of Jesus, showing that Jesus was as authentically human as he was authentically God who truly loved His family and His cousin.
Created by God the Creator, Mary has a human nature. Yet it was destiny that she was to become the bridge along which all members of humanity are invited to travel to heaven by their imitation of her openness to God's plan for them. It is thus a blessing to remember her words and to pray the greeting of Gabriel to Mary in the Hail Mary prayer; and to say the Magnificat, the magnificent poem of praise by mary of Nazareth.
As Sister Agnes wrote in 1948:
Now we tell in our generation
What the old have told
What they will tell who come after
Hail Mary, Holy Mary, blessed art thou!
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