A Song To Sing

Those who wish to sing always find a song.  ~Swedish Proverb

This past week I've been ruminating on the above quote in my weekly Abbey Press Calendar, which my sweet sister Annie gives me every Christmas.  She has one as well, so we're always sharing our thoughts on the quote of the week, which never fails to excite, ignite, incite and/or delight us.

I keep my calendar on my prayer altar, so it's one of the first things I see each morning as I make my way there to start my day right.  I see my calendar often throughout the day because my apartment is too tiny for a little corner in which I can retreat to pray so my prayer altar is right there in the middle of everything.  I actually prefer it this way because it's a constant reminder to me that we are to pray always (cf. Eph 6:18; 1 Th 5:17; Lk 18:1), which is especially true for me as a consecrated virgin.

Today being Saturday, which the Catholic Church dedicates to the Blessed Mother, I immediately thought of Mary and her Magnificat when my eyes lit upon this week's quote.  Here's a woman who wanted to sing!  And she always found a song because her beloved Son Jesus, the Word of the Father, dwelt within her.  He sang in her!  Her entire life was an endless hymn of praise as she went with Him from glory to glory.  Even at the foot of the Cross she could and did sing -- "At night his song is with me." (Ps 42:8) -- for she knew as only faith, hope and love know that He was the Life that could never die but would rise again and live for ever. 

Pope Benedict XVI speaks often of Our Lady's Magnificat.  In his encyclical on Christian Love, "Deus Caritas Est", he notes:

"My soul magnifies the Lord” (Lk 1:46). In these words she expresses her whole programme of life: not setting herself at the centre, but leaving space for God, who is encountered both in prayer and in service of neighbour—only then does goodness enter the world.

Mary teaches us to sing.  In her Magnificat, the Mother of Christ reveals to us the mystery of the Incarnation.  When the Word becomes flesh within us as it did in Mary's womb, we give birth to Christ in faith as she did in the flesh.  As the Holy Father continues in "Deus Caritas Est":

As we contemplate in the Mother of God a life totally shaped by the word, we realize that we too are called to enter into the mystery of faith, whereby Christ comes to dwell in our lives. Every Christian believer, Saint Ambrose reminds us, in some way interiorly conceives and gives birth to the word of God: even though there is only one Mother of Christ in the flesh, in the faith Christ is the progeny of us all. Thus, what took place for Mary can daily take place in each of us, in the hearing of the word and in the celebration of the sacraments. 

Dear friends, let us make Mary's song our own.  May her Magnificat be our "whole programme of life."  With Our Lady, today and always, may we sing a new song to the Lord, a hymn of praise to our God.  Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

The Lord is my strength and my shield;

in him my heart trusts.

I was helped; my heart rejoices,

and I praise him with my song.

~Psalm 28:7