Every year in the season of Advent we have a chance to listen to the Magnificat of Mary being read as one of the Sunday readings. This glorious canticle or prayer is named after Mary’s words in Luke 1:46–55, which begin, My soul magnifies the Lord. It is Mary’s response to her encounter with her cousin Elizabeth. Mary shares this canticle with Elizabeth, seemingly inspired by the words of Hannah when she presented her son, the prophet Samuel, to the priests of God in 1 Samuel 2:1–10. In her life, we see the blessings of the Holy Spirit in making her...