#Magnificat

[and-her-saints]

What does it mean you support the Magnificat? Genuine question, I am catholic but never heard about that term

The Magnificat is a canticle/prayer/song, also known as The Song of Mary! It's found in the Bible, amongst narrative of the Visitation, (Luke 1:46-55) when the Virgin Mary goes to visit her elderly pregnant cousin, Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist). Magnificat means "my soul magnifies the Lord".

The Magnificat is a deeply revolutionary hymn. Many leftist/working-class Christians throughout history have particularly taken a stronghold to it. Especially, since it says some really beautiful lines like:

"He [God] 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, and the rich he has sent away empty." [x]

For more modern instances, we have 'The Magnificast', which is precisely a leftist Christian podcast. And we have work like Ben Wildflower's Magnificat woodcut, who is an Episcopalian anarchist. It's also deeply meaningful within Catholic Latin American/liberation theology history.

To me, being a "magnificat supporter," is a funny/niche/cheeky way of saying where my politics lie. i'm a leftist !

[book-addicted-thing]

imagine being just Some Dude with a Ghastly Market stand and suddenly seeing 2 kids and a Magnificat run past and chaos ensue in their wake. like bro I just wanted to sell some unnimal organs I need this money to pay my rent

[thewordfortheday]

And Mary said: ‘My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me – holy is His name. His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation.

Luke 1:46‭-‬50

Mary’s song, known as the Magnificat, is awe inspiring. Mary's words display an attitude of thankfulness in the face of ridicule and condemnation. Mary could have focused on the situation and felt nothing but fear. Fear of rejection, fear of being ostracized. Instead, she focuses on praising her Creator and her Saviour. The message for us is that we are to have faith and trust in our God. No matter the situation or circumstance, God has it all in His hands, that should cause us to praise and thank Him always. Not just this Christmas season, but all seasons.

[rosasstrangemelody]

would you still accept him?

Meowgnifico or Magnificat? What are we going to call him?

[momentsbeforemass]

The Assumption

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

The Magnificat, Mary’s hymn of joy, marks the first time anyone recognized her as the mother of Our Lord. And it marks the beginning of Mary’s public ministry.

Wait. What? Mary had a public ministry?

We don’t have any Mary parables. She wasn’t out teaching, healing the sick, raising the dead, or any of that stuff.

Right. Because that wasn’t her public ministry. Mary’s public ministry wasn’t being Christ.

Mary’s public ministry was being a Christian. Being the first Christian.

With Mary’s “yes,” she was all in. No reservations. Nothing held back. 100% in for God’s plan.

Which means that Mary lived the faith. Without counting the cost.

So it should surprise no one that we look to her as our model. Our first and best example of how to follow Jesus. Of what it really means to be a Christian.

And the Assumption? If we see Mary for who she really is, the first Christian. The first to be 100% in. Then it makes perfect sense that the God who was with her every step of the way would bring her home.

Good for her. But what does any of that mean for you and me, two millennia later?

It means that Mary is our example of how to live the faith, our roadmap. In the face of all of the heartache and all of the tears, with all that she went through, Mary shows us what it really means to be a Christian.

The Assumption is nothing less than proof of God’s promise. God’s promise to Mary. God’s promise to each one of us.

That in spite of the heartache, in spite of the tears. That no matter what we go through. God will be with us, every step of the way. And that at the last, God will bring us Home.

Today’s Readings

[myremnantarmy]

“𝘔𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥..."

[shutterandsentence]

And Mary said:

“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,  for he has been mindful     of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed,      for the Mighty One has done great things for me—     holy is his name.  His mercy extends to those who fear him,     from generation to generation.  He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;     he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.  He has brought down rulers from their thrones     but has lifted up the humble.  He has filled the hungry with good things     but has sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,     remembering to be merciful  to Abraham and his descendants forever,     just as he promised our ancestors.”

--Luke 1:46-55

Photo: Palermo, Sicily, Italy

[humnooshop]

My spirit animal is a magnificat

Lightweight hoodie and other products with this design are available on my Redbubble :)

[screampotato]

Mary's Song

So today, at church, we covered the Magnificat, or Mary's song. It's the song of celebration she sings when visiting her cousin Elizabeth and finding they're both unexpectedly pregnant, and both subject to frightening and difficult prophecies. Reading Mary's Song is a standard part of the advent of Christmas in my tradition - in most Christian traditions in fact.

And I learned something I didn't know. Apparently the Magnificat has been banned in various countries at various points of history, because it's been considered dangerously revolutionary. British-occupied India, for example, and Argentina in the 1970s.

Why would a modern regime ban a passage from the Christmas story, a poem attributed to a dirt-poor teenager living under military occupation and social condemnation, thousands of years ago?

I think this might be the bit that upset them:

He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.

(Luke 1: 51-53)

If you're looking for something to write on a banner to annoy people in power, this would do the job, wouldn't it? Especially if those people in power are claiming to be Christian.

[insteading]

Why you should share your hyperfixations

Listening to a Magnificat playlist, as ya do, and I just hit a cluster of early renaissance pieces, and had a memory pop up of being in college and rearranging my voice mail to be 10 seconds of me saying, "I know exams are coming up and you're stressed, so before you leave a message, listen to a few phrases of this Guillaume Dufay piece," followed by music all the way to the beep.

One day when I got home, there were four calls from my music history prof, who kept coming back to listen, even though I know for a fact that as the person who made me a fan of Dufay, he had better recordings. He was just so excited that something from the term really landed with someone.

[inspiredbyjesuslove]

[lesser-known-composers]

Pietro Generali (1773-1832) - Magnificat per coro e orchestra

Performers: Orchestra Sinfonica di Praga, Eduardo Brizio, Coro della Radiotelevisione Ceka.

[herunswithscissors]

We are having a Godzilla Christmas!

Funny thing: In Job God compares godself to a terrifying legendary sea monster. And for Christmas, God comes to God's people to disrupt oppression and bring about the downfall of the rich and powerful.

[winwin17]

Okay, who wants to join me in starting Operation Rescue All the Magnificats from the Republic?

[aprillikesthings]

There are a lot of things that suck ass about living in 2024, but the fact that I can look at literally any page of the Book of Kells and get a better, more zoomed-in look at it, than I could if I were standing in front of the fucking thing, is not one of them

That part is pretty god damn great

It's a lavishly illuminated book of the Gospels (in Latin), made in the 800's in Ireland.

It's one of those things that I can't think about too much or I just start crying. It's so beautiful and human.

THE LEVEL OF DETAIL IS FUCKING WILD. This is the "chi ro" page. (from the first two Greek letters of the word "Christ" (Greek: ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ, or Χριστός) – Chi (χ) and Rho (ρ).)

Each page is 330 mm by 250 mm (13 inches by 9.8 inches). It's all on calfskin vellum. All 680 pages of it. (340 "leaves"). There are places where there's patches in the calfskin and holes that weren't patched. Some of the colors were made from things imported from as far away as the Mediterranean.

We're missing a few pages, but it's a fucking miracle we have it at ALL. It's up there with the Bayeux Tapestry (among other things! those are just ones I personally know about!) in terms of "I can't believe humans made this spectacular thing that long ago and WE STILL HAVE IT." Things like fabric and writing are just so notoriously easy to lose/destroy!

I think one of my favorite things is that it isn't perfect! Not just the patches and holes--there are visible mistakes where one of the scribes ran out of room on a line, for instance:

"ah shit I forgot I needed to write 'maria' there."

(that says "et ait Maria," or "and Mary said")

Anyway. Yes I am considering getting a tattoo of part of it.

Specifically the opening lines of the Magnificat.

It's from the first chapter of Luke, and it's the song Mary sings when the angel tells her she's going to give birth to Jesus. The translation the Episcopal church uses for evening prayer goes:

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior

The Latin version:

Magnificat anima mea Dominum et exultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo

And here's what it looks like in the Book of Kells (and a link to the whole page if you're curious)

(...plus some of the next line, "quia respexit humilitatem," "he has looked upon his humble/lowly servant")

("but a whole bunch of letters are missing" yeah there was a whole Thing with writing out Latin, back when all writing was done by hand on vellum, where you could skip letters if you knew the reader would know which word you meant. That little line above the text is fancy writing for "I skipped some letters on that one.")

ANYWAY the PROBLEM is that I'm not a huge fan of the opening "Ma" of the word Magnificat. There are other examples of illuminated "Ma" in the Book that I might swap out, but they all look like that rounded shape, just the decoration varies.

I also have to decide whether to write out the Latin words or keep the abbreviations they used. Keeping the abbreviations might be easier lol.

Also I fucking love the Magnificat.

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, *     and 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 for ever.

The artist Ben Wildflower has a great woodcut print/sticker/t-shirt of a couple of lines from it:

[momentsbeforemass]

The Assumption

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

The Magnificat, Mary’s hymn of joy, marks the first time anyone recognized her as the mother of Our Lord. And it marks the beginning of Mary’s public ministry.

Wait. What? Mary had a public ministry?

We don’t have any Mary parables. She wasn’t out teaching, healing the sick, raising the dead, or any of that stuff.

Right. Because that wasn’t her public ministry. Mary’s public ministry wasn’t being Christ.

Mary’s public ministry was being a Christian. Being the first Christian.

With Mary’s “yes,” she was all in. No reservations. Nothing held back. 100% in for God’s plan.

Which means that Mary lived the faith. Without counting the cost.

So it should surprise no one that we look to her as our model. Our first and best example of how to follow Jesus. Of what it really means to be a Christian.

And the Assumption? If we see Mary for who she really is, the first Christian. The first to be 100% in. Then it makes perfect sense that the God who was with her every step of the way would bring her home.

Good for her. But what does any of that mean for you and me, two millennia later?

It means that Mary is our example of how to live the faith, our roadmap. In the face of all of the heartache and all of the tears, with all that she went through, Mary shows us what it really means to be a Christian.

The Assumption is nothing less than proof of God’s promise. God’s promise to Mary. God’s promise to each one of us.

That in spite of the heartache, in spite of the tears. That no matter what we go through. God will be with us, every step of the way. And that at the last, God will bring us Home.

Today’s Readings