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Igniting HOPE – Hope for the World

“Go to the people.  Live among them.  Learn from them.  Love them.  Serve them.”  Y. C. James Yen

Catholic WORD of the Week

“Magnificat – The Magnificat of Mary responds to Elizabeth’s declaratory statements and questions by proclaiming the graciousness of God in fulfilling His promises to Israel (Lk. 1:46-55).  The Latin designation is quite appropriate, since it captures the essential character of Mary’s praise of God.  The language of Mary’s response to what God has done is steeped in Old Testament passages, e.g., Psalm 30:8, 33:4.  In fact, Mary’s Canticle most closely resembles Hannah’s Hymn of Praise (1 Sm 2:1-10) and may be the text through which Mary’s response was developed.  Mary’s hymn echoes the just response to God’s great actions of salvation.  Her song of praise is the great archetype or pattern of Christian Faith.  Unlike most of the other figures in this part of Luke’s narrative, Mary’s understanding of what is taking place is full of clarity.  Aided by grace and the effects of the Immaculate Conception (or the absence of the darkness of sin), Mary is the model of how each believer should penetrate to the deepest truths of what lives at the core of events within salvation history, so as to discover the hand of God.  Storing up such events in one’s heart and going over and over them in an inquisitive yet prayerful manner can bring us more deeply into an active knowledge of God’s great plan of salvation and of eventual participation in it.”  Our Sunday Visitor’s CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, page 616