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What is the Magnificat?
The Magnificat is the song Mary sings in Luke 1:46-55 when she visits her relative Elizabeth. It is also called the Song of Mary or the Canticle of Mary. Its name comes from its first word in Latin, magnificat, "magnifies": "My soul magnifies the Lord." In ten verses, Mary praises God for choosing her, declares that God lifts up the lowly and brings down the proud, and celebrates God's faithfulness to Israel. It is one of the oldest Christian hymns and is still sung or prayed every day in churches around the world.
The setting of Mary's song
Mary has said yes to the angel Gabriel: "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word" (Luke 1:38). She is young, engaged but not married, and carrying a child by the Holy Spirit. That is an unimaginable calling and, in her world, a dangerous one. So she hurries to the one person who might understand, her relative Elizabeth, who is six months into her own impossible pregnancy.
When Mary arrives, the child in Elizabeth's womb leaps for joy, and Elizabeth blesses her: "blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord" (Luke 1:45). The Magnificat is Mary's answer. Blessed by Elizabeth, she turns the blessing toward God. See The Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38) and The Visitation (Luke 1:39-45).
![[Image: The Annunciation by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1898. Caption: Tanner's painting shows the moment Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear Jesus, the Son of God. Source.]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/663a62681b83a570601afe6a/1732210752353-VS7JNP5A4JJH6QBRAW07/The_Annunciation%2C_Philadelphia_Museum_of_Art%2C_W1899-1-1-pma%2C_by_Henry_Ossawa_Tanner.jpg)
[Image: The Annunciation by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1898. Caption: Tanner's painting shows the moment Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear Jesus, the Son of God. Source.]
The Magnificat text (Luke 1:46-55, NRSV)
And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."
And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home. (Luke 1:56)
In the Latin Vulgate, translated largely by Jerome in the late fourth century and the standard Bible of the Western church for a thousand years, the song begins: Magnificat anima mea Dominum, "My soul magnifies the Lord."
The shape of the song
The Magnificat moves in two halves.
What God has done for Mary (Luke 1:46-50). Personal praise: God has noticed a lowly servant, done great things for her, and shown mercy to all who fear him.
What God is doing in the world (Luke 1:51-55). Six bold verbs: God has shown strength, scattered the proud, brought down the powerful, lifted up the lowly, filled the hungry, and sent the rich away empty, all in faithfulness to the promise made to Abraham.
Mary moves from "me" to "us," from her own story to Israel's. That is the pattern of biblical praise. What God does for one person is a sign of what God is doing for all.
Luke 1:46: "My soul magnifies the Lord"
Mary begins with praise. The Greek verb, megalynō, means to make great. Mary cannot make God any bigger than God is, but she can make much of God. She enlarges God in her own sight and in the sight of everyone who hears her. Her whole self is involved: soul in verse 46, spirit in verse 47.
Luke 1:47: "And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior"
Mary's joy is not mainly about her circumstances, which are frightening. It is about who God is. She calls God "my Savior," the God who rescued Israel again and again. The psalmist prayed the same way: "Then my soul shall rejoice in the LORD, exulting in his deliverance" (Psalm 35:9). The child she carries will be named Jesus, "the Lord saves," and the angels will soon announce him as "a Savior" (Luke 2:11).
Luke 1:48: "He has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant"
Mary knows where she stands. She is a young, unmarried woman from a small town in Galilee, hardly the person anyone would expect God to choose. The word "lowliness" can mean low status or even humiliation. The same word describes Hannah's misery when she prayed for a child (1 Samuel 1:11). God has looked at Mary's low place and chosen her anyway, or rather, chosen her precisely there.
"Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed." Mary is not boasting. She is stating what God's choice will mean. Elizabeth has already called her blessed (Luke 1:42, 45), and the church has done so ever since. The blessing rests on God's favor, not on Mary's merit.
Step back and look at the whole first chapter of Luke. Zechariah's turn to serve in the temple came by the casting of a lot. He and Elizabeth had no child and no hope, with age and biology against them. Mary, a nobody from Nazareth, will bear the Lord of all. And the next people to hear the news will be shepherds, not kings or princes or political envoys. This is good news for all people, and every reversal is part of it.
Luke 1:49: "The Mighty One has done great things for me"
"For the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name." Mary names God by power and by holiness. "Great things" is the language Israel used for the exodus (Deuteronomy 10:21). God's holiness means God is utterly other, yet this holy God has bent down to a girl in Nazareth. See El Shaddai: God Almighty.
[Image: a handmade clay cross hanging by twine from a Christmas tree. Caption: Grace abounds as God fulfills promises through faithful servants in every generation.]
Luke 1:50: "His mercy is for those who fear him"
"His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation." The fear of the Lord is not terror. It is a high and holy reverence that leads to trust and obedience. God's mercy is not for Mary alone; it reaches every generation that honors God. The psalmist says the same: "But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children" (Psalm 103:17).
Luke 1:51: "He has scattered the proud"
"He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts." God's "arm" is the Bible's picture of God's power to rescue, the arm that brought Israel out of Egypt (Exodus 6:6). The proud are scattered not first in their armies but "in the thoughts of their hearts." God sees through the plans of the powerful and undoes them from the inside.
Notice the tense. Mary sings in the past tense about things God has only begun to do. She is so sure of God's promise that she speaks of it as already done.
Luke 1:52: "He has brought down the powerful from their thrones"
"He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly." This is the heart of the Magnificat: the great reversal. The mighty fall and the humble rise. It echoes the psalm that celebrates a God who "raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people" (Psalm 113:7-8).
Jesus will preach this kingdom. His first sermon announces good news to the poor and release to the captives (Luke 4:18). His teaching turns the world's ranking upside down: the last will be first, the humble will be exalted (Luke 14:11; 18:14).
Luke 1:53: "He has filled the hungry with good things"
"He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty." God's generosity flows toward those in need. The rich are sent away with nothing, because they came already full. They have what they think they need, so there is no room to receive.
Luke's whole Gospel carries this theme. Jesus' own beatitudes in Luke are blunt: "Blessed are you who are poor... Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled" and "woe to you who are rich" (Luke 6:20-24). See The Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17-26), The Parable of the Rich Fool and The Rich Man and Lazarus.
Luke 1:54-55: "According to the promise he made to our ancestors"
"He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever." Mary ends where Israel's story began, with Abraham. God had promised, "I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant" (Genesis 17:7). Mary sees her son as that promise kept. God has not forgotten.
Luke 1:56: Mary returns home
"And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home." Mary arrived in Elizabeth's sixth month, so she stayed until about the time of John's birth. Then she went back to Nazareth to face whatever waited for her there. Luke tells the story of John's birth next. See The Birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:57-66).
Mary's song and Hannah's song
Mary knows her Scriptures. Her song draws heavily on the prayer of Hannah, another woman who received a child she could not have expected and gave him back to God (1 Samuel 2:1-10). Hannah's son was Samuel, the prophet who anointed David. Mary's son will sit on David's throne.
| Hannah (1 Samuel 2, NRSV) | Mary (Luke 1, NRSV) |
|---|---|
| "My heart exults in the LORD" (2:1) | "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior" (1:46-47) |
| "There is no Holy One like the LORD" (2:2) | "Holy is his name" (1:49) |
| "The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength" (2:4) | "He has scattered the proud... and lifted up the lowly" (1:51-52) |
| "Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry are fat with spoil" (2:5) | "He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty" (1:53) |
| "He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap" (2:8) | "He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly" (1:52) |
Hannah's song was a mother's praise that became Israel's hope. Mary takes it up and announces that the hope has arrived.
The Magnificat in worship
Few passages in Scripture have been prayed more often. For centuries the Magnificat has been sung every evening:
Evening Prayer. In the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours it is the Canticle of Mary at Vespers. In the Anglican tradition it is sung at Evensong, paired with Simeon's song, the Nunc Dimittis. Lutheran and many Protestant prayer books include it as well.
Advent. In the Revised Common Lectionary, the Magnificat may be sung in place of the psalm on the Third and Fourth Sundays of Advent in Year B, and it follows the Gospel reading of Mary's visit to Elizabeth in Year C. See the Advent 3, Year B liturgy and Advent Liturgy.
Music. Composers from Monteverdi to Bach to John Rutter have set it to music. Bach's Magnificat was first performed in Leipzig at Christmas in 1723.
Luke's first two chapters hold four of the church's great canticles: Mary's Magnificat, Zechariah's Benedictus (Luke 1:68-79, see Zechariah's Prophecy), and, in the next chapter, the angels' Gloria and Simeon's Nunc Dimittis. Luke's Christmas story is full of singing.
Praying the Magnificat
You can pray Mary's song as your own. Read it slowly, aloud, one line at a time. Pause at the line that catches you. Ask where you need God to lift you up, and where you need God to bring down your pride. Then close with a prayer like this:
Mighty One, holy is your name. Thank you for looking with favor on the lowly, and on me. Scatter the pride in my heart. Fill the hungry, starting with those near me, and use my hands to do it. Help me trust your promises as Mary did. Amen.
Pastor's heads-up: Since the time of the judges (and then the kings), unprincipled leaders self-dealt, accumulated power, money, and influence. Over the decades and hundreds of years, the wealth concentrated at the top and left the people below them in society poor, hungry, and unable to seek justice because corruption took place at all levels, even the justice system. Mary knows her history, the history of her people and her faith. God, through Jesus, will reverse that.
Guardrail: "Was the Magnificat banned?" You may read that governments in Guatemala, Argentina or British India once banned public recitation of the Magnificat because it was too revolutionary. These stories are widely repeated, but I have not found solid historical documentation for them. Share them as stories people tell, not as established fact. The song's power does not depend on them.
Guardrail: Mary's song across traditions. Catholic and Orthodox Christians honor Mary with prayers and feasts that grow partly from this song; many Protestants focus more on its message of reversal. Mary herself points the way: the song is about what God has done. "Holy is his name."
Questions about the Magnificat
What does Magnificat mean? It is Latin for "magnifies," the first word of Mary's song in the Latin Bible: Magnificat anima mea Dominum, "My soul magnifies the Lord."
Where is the Magnificat in the Bible? Luke 1:46-55. Luke 1:56 adds that Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months.
Who wrote the Magnificat? Luke presents it as Mary's song, spoken during her visit to Elizabeth. It draws deeply on the psalms and on Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 2.
What is the main message of the Magnificat? God lifts up the lowly and brings down the proud, fills the hungry and sends the rich away empty, and keeps the promise made to Abraham. Mary praises God for beginning that great reversal through her son.
Is the Magnificat a prayer or a song? Both. Luke records it as a song of praise, and the church prays or sings it daily as a canticle, especially at evening prayer.
What is the difference between the Magnificat and the Benedictus? The Magnificat is Mary's song (Luke 1:46-55), sung before Jesus' birth. The Benedictus is Zechariah's song (Luke 1:68-79), sung after John's birth. Both praise God for keeping the promise to Abraham.
Keep reading in Luke
Before this: The Visitation (Luke 1:39-45)
For teaching: Confirmation Week 2: The Annunciation (Luke 1:26-56)
Sources
Raymond E. Brown, The Birth of the Messiah, updated edition (Doubleday, 1993).
Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Eerdmans, 1997).
John Nolland, Luke 1:1-9:20, Word Biblical Commentary 35A (Word Books, 1989).
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version.
