Tradition Day by Day: December 22

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December 22

Magnificat

ou magnify him because amid this world's darkness, being more luminous than the sun, more beautiful than the moon, more fragrant than the rose, and whiter than snow, you reveal more fully the splendor of God.

You magnify him, not by giving him an increase of his boundless magnitude, but by bringing, amid the world's darkness, the light of the true divinity. You magnify him when you are raised to so high a dignity that you receive the fullness of grace; when you merit to receive the visit of the Holy Spirit; and when, becoming the Mother of God, while remaining an inviolate Virgin, you give birth to a Savior for a world that is being lost.

But whence do you get the power to do this? From the fact that the Lord is with you, the Lord who makes his gifts become your merits. That is why it is said that you "magnify" him so much more to the extent that you are more magnified in and by him.

Your soul, then, magnifies the Lord only in the sense that you yourself are magnified by him, even to receiving magnificently the fullness of grace and reaching the magnificence of a unique glory. For you are the receptacle of the Word, the cellar of the new wine which inebriates the sobriety of believers. You are the Mother of God!

Adam of Perseigne

Augustine Day By Day

The Augustinians - St. Thomas of Villanova Province

From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.

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