Magnificat (1928 BCP)
Magnificat (1928 BCP) is the Song of Mary, Luke 1:46–55, appointed after the First Lesson in Daily Evening Prayer in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. Its opening Latin word means “magnifies.” In the canticle the Church takes Mary's praise upon its own lips: God is her Saviour, the mighty one who regards the lowly, judges pride and self-sufficiency, feeds the hungry, and remembers his covenant mercy to Abraham and Israel.
The Magnificat is therefore both personal thanksgiving and corporate proclamation. Mary speaks in the first person, yet her song gathers up Israel's Scriptures and reaches from “all generations” to Abraham and his seed. In the order of Evensong it answers the Old Testament lesson with the Gospel's announcement that the promised salvation is arriving in the child she bears.
Text in the 1928 Prayer Book
The 1928 Prayer Book prints the following complete canticle:
MY soul doth magnify the Lord, * and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For he hath regarded * the lowliness of his handmaiden.
For behold, from henceforth * all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath magnified me; * and holy is his Name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him * throughout all generations.
He hath showed strength with his arm; * he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, * and hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things; * and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel; * as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed, for ever.
The asterisks mark the half-verses for responsive recitation or chant; they are not omissions. The Prayer Book also permits the Gloria Patri after the Magnificat. That optional doxology places Mary's biblical song explicitly within the Church's praise of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.[2]
Place in Evening Prayer
The appointed position is exact:
Then shall be read the First Lesson, according to the Table or Calendar. After which shall be sung or said the Hymn called Magnificat, as followeth.
Ordinarily the movement is psalmody, First Lesson, Magnificat, Second Lesson, and Nunc dimittis. The 1928 book allows the minister to omit one lesson at discretion, provided that the lesson read is followed by one of the Evening Canticles.[4] It also supplies Cantate Domino and Bonum est confiteri as alternatives. The Magnificat nevertheless gives the normal sequence a distinctive biblical logic: the Old Testament is heard, and Mary's Gospel song declares the God of Israel faithful to his promise.
W. K. Lowther Clarke described this relation of lesson and canticle:
We begin with the Old Testament, which looks forward to Christ. Next comes the Magnificat, which links the two Testaments.
The phrase “links the two Testaments” is not a claim that the Old Testament lacks saving truth. It identifies the song's canonical position: Mary praises the God of Israel because the ancient promise is being fulfilled in Christ.
Mary, Elizabeth, and the coming of Christ
The Magnificat belongs to the Visitation narrative. Elizabeth's Spirit-filled greeting immediately precedes it:
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ... And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.
Mary is called blessed because of the “fruit” of her womb and because she believes the Lord's promise. Her reply directs praise away from herself to “God my Saviour.” The Prayer Book thus teaches honour for Mary in the form Scripture gives it: all generations call her blessed, while she magnifies the Lord whose holiness, might, and mercy are the substance of her song.
The Christology is already present before Jesus is born. Elizabeth calls Mary “the mother of my Lord,” and Mary rejoices in the saving action of God. Conrad A. M. Stewart accordingly called the Magnificat the Incarnation's evening hymn:
What the Magnificat is to Evensong—that the Benedictus is to Mattins. The Magnificat is the “Evening Hymn of the Incarnation,” and the Incarnation is the centre-piece of the Christian religion.
This interpretation explains why the canticle is more than a general hymn of gratitude. Its praise is occasioned by the conception of the Lord and by the fulfilment of the word announced to Mary.
The lowly raised and the hungry filled
Mary's language is formed by Israel's praise, especially Hannah's song after the birth of Samuel:
My heart rejoiceth in the LORD, mine horn is exalted in the LORD: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation. ... The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes.
Both songs confess a God who overturns human pretension. In the Magnificat the proud are scattered first “in the imagination of their hearts”; the fall of the mighty and the emptying of the rich follow that inward disorder. Conversely, the humble are exalted and the hungry filled by God's action. The canticle is neither flattery of material poverty nor a promise that every existing social arrangement is divinely approved. It is a judgment upon pride, power, and wealth when treated as self-sufficient, and a promise that God's kingdom does not measure people by their worldly rank.
The saying also anticipates Christ's proclamation of blessing to the poor and hungry and woe to the rich and full in Luke 6:20–25. Because the Church sings these words, it cannot treat mercy to the lowly as an abstract doctrine. Evening praise examines the worshipper's imagination, use of power, possessions, and care for those in need.
Mercy, Israel, and Abraham's seed
The canticle ends not with a general appeal to progress but with covenant remembrance: God “hath holpen his servant Israel” as he promised to Abraham. The New Testament identifies the promise's decisive fulfilment in Christ:
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
Mary's “remembering” does not imply that God had forgotten and then recovered the promise. It is biblical language for God's faithful action on behalf of his people. The movement of the song—Mary, the God-fearing through all generations, the humble and hungry, Israel, Abraham and his seed—joins the personal, ecclesial, and covenantal without collapsing one into another.
Liturgical history
The Magnificat did not enter Anglican worship as a new Reformation composition. William Palmer traced its place after the lesson through medieval English and earlier Western offices:
The lesson of vespers was followed by the hymn of the holy Virgin in the offices of the churches of Salisbury, York, and Hereford. ... The same is found in the offices of the English church before the Norman Conquest.
The 1549 Book of Common Prayer retained the Vespers canticle while forming English Evensong from elements of Vespers and Compline. Lowther Clarke summarizes the construction with particular clarity:
The Magnificat came from Vespers; Nunc Dimittis came from Compline, and so did the Creed.
This history explains the Prayer Book sequence. Magnificat responds to the First Lesson as the Gospel canticle of Vespers; Nunc dimittis responds to the Second Lesson as the Gospel canticle inherited from Compline. Their union makes Evensong a scriptural passage from promise to fulfilment and from incarnation to peaceful departure in the sight of salvation.
American omission and restoration
The first authorized American Prayer Book of 1789 omitted both the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis from Evening Prayer. The 1892 revision restored the Gospel canticles, and the 1928 revision retained them. Arthur Whipple Jenks, Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the General Theological Seminary, interpreted the earlier omission and later recovery in these terms:
Some vague dread of Mariolatry led to the omission of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis from the canticles at Evening Prayer, which were not restored until the revision of 1892.
The 1928 placement answers the old suspicion through the text itself. The song calls Mary blessed, as Luke requires, while every clause magnifies God and culminates in his covenant mercy. Restoring the canticle did not add an extra-biblical invocation of Mary; it restored Luke's inspired song to the evening office.
Anglican use and interpretation
Latta Griswold, writing in the year of the American Prayer Book's adoption, argued that the Gospel canticles should retain their liturgical priority:
The Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis should invariably be used as the canticles. The Magnificat is the memorial of the Incarnation, and in some respects the most important part of the service.
Griswold's “should” is pastoral counsel, not a denial of the 1928 rubrical alternatives. It expresses a theological judgment: regular use of Mary's song keeps the Incarnation and the fulfilment of Israel's hope at the centre of Evensong.
The canticle has also become one of the principal texts of Anglican choral worship. Daniel James McGrath notes the established practice:
In choral settings of the Daily Office, the canticles normally sung for matins are the Te Deum laudamus and the Benedictus, while in the Office of Evensong, the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis are generally sung.
Musical elaboration serves the words only when the congregation can hear and understand their biblical argument. Whether said, sung to Anglican chant, or set polyphonically, the Magnificat remains the Church's common confession that salvation is God's merciful act in Christ. Its repeated use forms Christian humility and hope: worshippers magnify the Lord, receive judgment upon pride and self-sufficiency, remember the poor and hungry, and trust the promise made to Abraham.
See Also
- Evening Prayer (1928 BCP)
- Cantate Domino (1928 BCP)
- Nunc Dimittis (1928 BCP)
- Daily Office (1928 BCP)
- Collect for Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1928 BCP)
References
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, Standard Book accepted by the General Convention of October 1928 and printed for the Commission (1930), “The Order for Daily Evening Prayer,” “Magnificat. St. Luke i. 46,” pp. 26–27. The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Daily Evening Prayer. The text was compared word for word with the local transcription at
sources/justus1928/EP.htm, lines 303–325, and with the 1928 Standard Book facsimile, PDF pp. 33–34 (printed pp. 26–27). - ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book (1930), “Daily Evening Prayer,” rubric governing the Gloria Patri, p. 25. 1928 Standard Book facsimile, PDF p. 32.
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book (1930), “Daily Evening Prayer,” rubrics before the Magnificat, p. 26. The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Daily Evening Prayer.
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book (1930), “Daily Evening Prayer,” note after the First Lesson rubric, p. 26. 1928 Standard Book facsimile, PDF p. 33.
- ↑ W. K. Lowther Clarke, Evensong Explained, with Notes on Matins and the Litany (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1922), “The Spirit of the Service,” discussion following the First Lesson. Evensong Explained, Project Canterbury.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, Authorized Version (Oxford: Oxford University Press, standard text), Luke 1:42–45; ellipsis omits verse 44. Luke 1:41–45, King James Version, Bible Gateway.
- ↑ Conrad A. M. Stewart, How to Make Mattins and Evensong Real: Some Practical Suggestions, Little Books on Religion, no. 40 (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1926), “The Canticles,” discussion of the Magnificat and Benedictus. How to Make Mattins and Evensong Real, Project Canterbury.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, Authorized Version (Oxford: Oxford University Press, standard text), 1 Samuel 2:1, 7–8; ellipsis marks the omitted verses 2–6, and the quotation ends before the remainder of verse 8. 1 Samuel 2:1, 7–8, King James Version, Bible Gateway.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, Authorized Version (Oxford: Oxford University Press, standard text), Galatians 3:16. Galatians 3:16, King James Version, Bible Gateway.
- ↑ William Palmer, Origines Liturgicæ; or, Antiquities of the English Ritual, and a Dissertation on Primitive Liturgies, vol. I, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1839), chapter I, part II, section V, “Magnificat,” pp. 255–256; ellipsis omits Palmer's intervening reference to Amalarius. Origines Liturgicæ, Evening Prayer, Project Canterbury.
- ↑ W. K. Lowther Clarke, Evensong Explained, with Notes on Matins and the Litany (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1922), “Cranmer's Work,” account of the 1549 Evensong. Evensong Explained, Project Canterbury.
- ↑ Arthur Whipple Jenks, The American Episcopal Church Interpreted for English Churchmen (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; New York: Macmillan, 1919), chapter IV, “The American Prayer Book,” discussion of the 1789 and 1892 revisions. The American Prayer Book, Project Canterbury.
- ↑ Latta Griswold, The Middle Way: Suggestions for a Practicable Ceremonial (Milwaukee: Morehouse, 1928), chapter III, “Evening Prayer or Evensong.” The Middle Way, chapter III, Project Canterbury.
- ↑ Daniel James McGrath, The Choir School in the American Church: A Study of the Choir School and Other Current Chorister Training Models in Episcopal and Anglican Parishes (D.M.A. supporting document, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2005), part I, “The Daily Office,” p. 30. The Choir School in the American Church, Project Canterbury PDF.