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Dear Ones of Christ Church,
Yesterday, on August 15th, many of us in the worldwide Church celebrated the Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin. Through the Art and Theology blog, I discovered the poem below, a contemporary rendering of Mary’s Song, the Magnificat, by M Jade Kaiser. The Magnificat is the powerful prophetic song Mary sings in Luke 1:46-55 while pregnant with Jesus and visiting her cousin Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist. A note that in the poem Kaiser uses the pronoun “They” to refer to the Holy Trinity.
As you read Mary’s Song, both the Scripture and Kaiser’s poetic interpretation, what stands out to you? What challenges you? What comforts you? What inspires and engages you? Who is Mary, for you, in your own faith journey?
With blessings for your week,
Melissa +
“Magnificat,” by Rev. M Jade Kaiser, as published in enfleshed
My soul is alive with thoughts of God.
What a wonder, Their liberating works.
Though the world has been harsh to me,
God has shown me kindness,
seen my worth,
and called me to courage.
Surely, those who come after me will call me blessed.
Even when my heart weighs heavy with grief,
still, so does hope abide with me.
Holy is the One who makes it so.
From generation to generation,
Love’s Mercy is freely handed out;
none are beyond the borders of
God’s transforming compassion.
The power of God is revealed
among those who labor for justice.
They humble the arrogant.
They turn unjust thrones into dust.
Their Wisdom is revealed in
the lives and truths of those on the margins.
God is a feast for the hungry.
God is the great redistributor of wealth and resources.
God is the ceasing of excessive and destructive production
that all the earth might rest.
Through exiles and enslavement,
famines and wars,
hurricanes and gun violence,
God is a companion in loss,
a deliverer from evil,
a lover whose touch restores.
This is the promise They made
to my ancestors,
to me,
to all the creatures and creations,
now and yet coming,
and in this promise,
I find my strength.
Come, Great Healer,
and be with us.
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