25 November 2026 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things.” Luke 1:52–53
Paul's great blessing opens the mystery of the whole year: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing… he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.” God's plan is “to gather up all things in him.”
Mary's Magnificat is the Church's song of that plan seen from below: God looks on the lowliness of his servant, scatters the proud, lifts up the lowly, fills the hungry. As the year ends and Annunciation approaches, the Church sings with Mary, the first of the redeemed and the image of the Church herself.
Theme: “He has done great things.”
Paul's hymn of God's plan and Mary's Magnificat close the year in praise.
“And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:3
“His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.” Luke 1:50
Apply: Thank God for three blessings of this year.
“The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, he also exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap.” 1 Samuel 2:7–8
“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things.” Luke 1:52–53
Apply: Do one act of respect for someone overlooked.
“Happy is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.” Psalm 33:12
“For he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant… for the Mighty One has done great things for me.” Luke 1:48–49
Apply: Pray the Magnificat tonight.
The year ends in praise.
With Mary we sing: holy is his name.
Take-home resolution: Pray the Magnificat each evening until Annunciation Sunday.
Dear friends, Paul's great blessing opens the mystery of the whole year: blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love (Ephesians 1:3–4).
Mary sings the same joy in her Magnificat: my soul magnifies the Lord, for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly (Luke 1:46–52). Mary's song is the Church's song.
As the season of the Dedication of the Church comes to an end, let us thank God with Mary for the blessings of a whole year. This evening, sit together as a family, name five blessings of this year, and pray a rosary of thanksgiving. Amen.
Children, Mary sang a song of praise to God. Today thank God for five good things he gave you this year!
Blessed be God, who chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. With Mary I praise you: you have done great things for me, and holy is your name. Amen.
Two hymns of praise stand side by side today. Ephesians opens with a great blessing of God for his plan, chosen “before the foundation of the world” and fulfilled in Christ. Luke gives us the Magnificat, Mary’s song for what God has done for her and for his people. One hymn looks at God’s plan from eternity; the other sees it come true in a humble young woman of Nazareth.
Setting.
In Greek, verses 3–14 form one single long sentence, a hymn that seems to run out of breath in praise. It takes the form of the Jewish berakah, a prayer that begins “Blessed be God” and then lists his works. Paul blesses the Father for what he has done in Christ, and the passage moves from eternity (v. 4) to the fullness of time (v. 10).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,” (1:3)
“just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.” (1:4)
Before anything existed, God thought of us in his Son. The aim of the choice is holiness, and its atmosphere is love.
“as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (1:10)
The whole universe has one centre and one goal: Christ.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism opens its teaching on the liturgy with this hymn: in the liturgy the Father is blessed as the source of every blessing (CCC 1077–1078). It also calls God’s plan, revealed in Ephesians 1, a “plan of loving kindness” conceived before the creation of the world (CCC 257).
Setting.
Mary has gone in haste to visit Elizabeth, and Elizabeth has called her “blessed” (1:42–45). Mary answers not by speaking about herself but by praising God. Her song is woven from Old Testament texts, above all the song of Hannah (1 Samuel 2:1–10), another woman whose child was God’s gift.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;” (1:48)
A prophecy fulfilled every time the Church honours Mary. Her blessedness comes from God’s look, not from her own greatness.
“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;” (1:52)
The verbs are in the past tense, as if God’s reversal were already done. In Christ it has begun.
“according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” (1:55)
The song ends with Abraham. What God is doing in Mary is the fulfilment of a very old promise.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism calls the Magnificat “the song both of the Mother of God and of the Church” (CCC 2619). St Ambrose, commenting on this Gospel, wishes that the soul of Mary be in each of us to magnify the Lord, and her spirit in each of us to rejoice in God (in substance).
Did Mary really compose such a hymn?
Mary was a young Jewish woman whose prayer was formed by the psalms and the songs of Scripture. The Magnificat is built from those texts, as a devout person of her time could pray. A few old Latin manuscripts attribute the song to Elizabeth, but almost all manuscripts and the whole tradition of the Church give it to Mary.