Magnificat

I've always loved to sing.  I remember making music with my mom and little brother, singing our favorite tunes into a tape recorder while mom accompanied us on her guitar.  I remember standing beside my grandparents in church, holding a miniature hymnal in my hands, singing words I could barely understand. And I remember concerts put on by my stuffed animals, belting out songs I learned in the school choir.

I wonder if Mary had always loved to sing.  It came naturally to her, apparently, for she sang as she walked the road between her house and Elizabeth's.  Poet Irene Zimmerman imagines the journey when she write, "As her feet unraveled the warp and woof of valleys and hills, darkness and days from Nazareth to Elizabeth, Mary wove the heart of her Son...Elizabeth, wise old weaver herself for several months by then, instantly saw the signs and ran heavily to meet her...Then Mary sang the seamless song she'd woven on the way."  My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord...


Already, before Advent even began, I was singing songs I've loved my whole life, songs that evoke memories of candle-let wreaths, angels on the mantlepiece, and midnight services.  Come, thou long expected Jesus... O come, O come Emmanuel... Of the Father's love begotten, 'ere the worlds began to be, he is Alpha and Omega; he the source; the ending, he...


Saint Augustine once wrote, "The one who sings, prays twice," and I believe it is true.  The words of Mary's prayer, like the words of all those beloved Advent and Christmas hymns, are lovely and wondrous.  Woven through with melodies, though, they soar on wings of angels, they ride the heart's deep rhythms, they sound the love of a mother bending over her baby as she sings him to sleep.

Scripture doesn't say so, but I suspect Jesus never forgot Mary's voice, the songs she cooed to him, the melodies she hummed as she went about each day's work.  Perhaps, every once in a while, he found himself singing as he went on his way, songs he'd loved his whole life, songs that evoked memories of candle-lit stables and angels in the heavens making their own midnight music... Glory to God in the highest, and peace to God's people on earth...


Artwork: "Annunciation," by Ruth Councell.