Traditional prayer
The Magnificat (The Canticle of Mary)
My soul doth magnify the Lord.
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is his name.
And his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him.
He hath shewed might in his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.
He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He hath received Israel his servant, being mindful of his mercy:
As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever.
Latin
Magnificat anima mea Dominum:
et exsultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo.
Quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae: ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes,
quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est: et sanctum nomen ejus,
et misericordia ejus a progenie in progenies timentibus eum.
Fecit potentiam in brachio suo: dispersit superbos mente cordis sui.
Deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit humiles.
Esurientes implevit bonis: et divites dimisit inanes.
Suscepit Israel puerum suum, recordatus misericordiae suae:
sicut locutus est ad patres nostros, Abraham et semini ejus in saecula.
About this prayer
The Magnificat is the longest speech of Our Lady in the Gospels, and she makes it to another woman. Newly with child, Mary “went into the hill country with haste” to her kinswoman Elizabeth (Luke 1:39). At her greeting the child in Elizabeth’s womb “leaped for joy,” and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Ghost, cried out: “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb” (Luke 1:41–44, Douay-Rheims). Among the first to rejoice at Christ’s coming were two expectant mothers and a child not yet born. Mary answered by turning every word of praise toward God.
It is a song of reversal: He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble; He hath filled the hungry with good things. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1910) notes that it is “in many places very similar in thought and phrase to the Canticle of Anna,” the song of Samuel’s mother, which begins “My heart hath rejoiced in the Lord” (1 Kings 2:1, Douay-Rheims; 1 Samuel 2 in modern Bibles). Two mothers, each given a child she could not have made for herself, sang the same God who lifts the lowly.
Its prophecy is plain: from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. The note printed with the Douay text reads: “These words are a prediction of that honour which the church in all ages should pay to the Blessed Virgin.” To honour her is to fulfil Scripture, and she herself sends all that honour straight back to the Lord.
The Church sings it every evening. In the Roman Breviary the Magnificat is assigned to Vespers, and at solemn Vespers it is sung with incense (Catholic Encyclopedia, “Magnificat”). The Latin given here is the Vulgate’s, the text the Douay-Rheims translates.
When to pray it
- In the evening, as the Church does at Vespers.
- When good news comes: a birth, a healing, an answered prayer.
- When you are with child, or praying beside a friend who is.
- With the second Joyful Mystery of the Rosary, the Visitation.
- When you feel small: it is the song of a lowly handmaid whom God regarded.