Monday 22 December 2025
1 Samuel 1:24-28. My heart rejoices in the Lord, my Saviour – 1 Samuel 2:1, 4-8. Luke 1:46-56.
A mother’s song
Hannah’s song is a song by a mother who laments her childlessness. The song moves from sadness to joy when her lament turns to praise in the Lord. The Lord has brought about in her a reversal of fortune. She will conceive and bear a son, Samuel.
The Magnificat (Mary’s song of praise) strongly echoes Hannah’s song. Both celebrate a birth not only miraculous but also of great significance in God’s story of salvation.
Mary, and Hannah before her, rejoices in the ways in which God’s saving actions focus upon justice and the redressing of wrongs and inequality. Mary sings about an active and countercultural God who turns things upside down from the status quo.
At times we focus our praise on God’s gifts that we ourselves enjoy. In this season of Advent, let us use the Magnificat as a prayer for justice for the poor and oppressed (for example, refugees and asylum seekers, Indigenous peoples and the homeless).
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