“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.