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LUKE 1:46 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Luke 1:45Luke 1:47
“And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,”
And Mary said: my soul glorifies the Lord — the Magnificat opens with the soul's magnification of the Lord — the inward recognition that the Lord is greater than any capacity to express. My soul (hē psychē mou) communicates the whole person's engagement: not merely verbal praise but the total self oriented toward the divine greatness. The Magnificat is Mary's extended meditation on what the annunciation means in the context of Israel's story — the personal and the historical woven together.

Church Fathers on Luke 1:46

As evil came into the world by a woman, so also is good introduced by women; and so it seems not without meaning, that both Elisabeth prophesies before John, and Mary before the birth of the Lord. But it follows, that as Mary was the greater person, so she uttered the fuller prophecy.

Ambrose · 4th century

For the Virgin, with lofty thoughts and deep penetration, contemplates the boundless mystery, the further she advances, magnifying God; And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord.

Basil the Great · 4th century

As if she said, Marvelous things has the Lord declared that He will accomplish in my body, but neither shall my soul be unfruitful before God. It becomes me to offer Him the fruit also of my will, for inasmuch as I am obedient to a mighty miracle, am I bound to glorify Him who performs His mighty works in me.

GREEK EX ·
Read all 4 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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