A Magnificat of our own...

I like the sound of that phrase...(I heard it somewhere, but it has been a long time, and the memory fades)

The word (magnificat) is a Latin word that starts out Mary's song about her pregnancy with the Savior. She says, in English, "My soul magnifies the Lord..." We often do not think of our "souls" this way, and quite a few people don't even believe in a "soul." Well, not only do I believe that we have "souls," but that other than food, drink, and good conversation nothing else matters. The state of your soul is the most important status update...

And Mary's "magnifies" God. What?? Doesn't "magnify" mean to make something bigger, to bring it into sharper focus, to intensify whatever or whomever is being magnified? How does Mary's soul make God bigger? How does Mary's soul intensify God? Whatever could the poet possibly mean? (I need my John Ciardi now folks!) How does Mary's soul bring God into sharper focus? I am befuddled...holey moley something is going on here in this birth of Christ thing I just do not understand...

Could it be that God--the creator of all, the Progenitor of Christ--seeks completion in humanity? That is, without humanity the will of God stands unfinished? Humanity, and all it brings with it, including its "soul" accomplishes for God what is the purpose of everything (including the fish!)? This is too hard to believe...yet, there it is...a young, teenage girl, pregnant in the most mysterious of ways actually makes God clearer with her soul...(at least we now know why she is a Saint). Could we dare receive God in the same way? Could we too make God clearer with our souls? Is Mary a singular of this God-activity; or, is she our prototype?

This time of year I want to believe she is our prototype...that God blesses us all to make God clearer to the world through our souls...That is, the Son frees us all to be vulnerable, scared-yet- trusting teenagers when it comes to the gifts of God...and our souls live in that trust to magnify God. Merry Christmas!!

May your tablesbe full, and your conversations be true.