Fr Matthew Reese

“My heart exults in the Lord; my strength is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation.”
—1 Samuel 2: 1

Dear Friends in Christ,

This morning’s first lesson, from 1 Samuel 1:21-2:11 includes one of the most beautiful songs of praise in the Old Testament, the “Song of Hannah.”

Hannah is the elder wife of Elkanah but has been unable to bear a child. In a scene with Eli, the High Priest, Hannah prays to God, is blessed, and then returns home and conceives a son—the eponymous Samuel of the book.

Of course, there are parallels between Hannah’s miraculous conception and Mary’s immaculate conception, and the Song of Hannah and the Magnificat are “echoes” of one another.

Think of the well-worn words you may remember from Evensong:

“My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit had rejoiced in God my savior For behold from henceforth All generations shall call me blessed”

Hannah’s song and Mary’s are not glosses on one another or word-for-word translations. The structures vary, there are different themes and different contexts. And yet the irrepressible joy, the sense of wonder, the proclamation of justice are all there.

This not only tells us something about the convention of Biblical genre and Hebrew poetry, it tells us about the kind of responses that human beings have to the miraculous workings of God.

Where have you encountered the miraculous workings of God in your own life? Not every encounter with God is so awe inspiring as Hannah’s or Mary’s and yet each encounter is still a cause for joy and proclamation.

My heart exults in the Lord.

Amen.

—Fr Matthew