The Most Holy Name of Mary
Galatians 4:4-7  +  Luke 1:39-47

“Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

“From the rising to the setting of the sun is the Name of the Lord to be praised.”  The Third Eucharistic Prayer alludes to this verse of Psalm 113, when the priest prays to the Father: “you never cease to gather a people to yourself, so that from the rising of the sun to its setting a pure sacrifice may be offered to your name.”  “…to your name.”

This liturgical allusion to Psalm 113 is echoed—and magnified—in another passage of Scripture which the Church prays in the Sacred Liturgy.  Every evening, at the setting of the sun when we as individuals grow tired and admit our need for rest, we gather to pray Vespers, during which we offer to God the words that Our Blessed Mother spoke at the time of her Visitation to her cousin.

Mary echoes Psalm 113, where the Psalmist prays that the Lord “raises up the lowly from the dust; from the dunghill he lifts up the poor.”  Mary echoes these words of the Old Testament when she praises the One whom she calls “God my savior, [who] has looked with favor of His lowly servant”, and again later praises Him who “has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.”  Thanks be to God for lowliness, through which we can see more clearly our need to praise the greatness of the Lord!

In our lowliness we may bless the Name of the Lord for ever.  Mary our Mother calls us, her child, to her side to pray in her words of the Magnificat.  The Lord has looked with favor on His lowly servant.  And she continues to lead us in prayer in these words:  “From this day all generations will call me blessed:  the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is His Name.”

All generations will call me blessed.”  At every moment, the sun is setting somewhere on the face of the earth.  At every moment, Vespers is being prayed by Mary’s children, and speak her words from the Magnificat:  calling her blessed because of the great things that the Almighty has done for her.

Mary’s Name is holy because of the great things that the Almighty has done for her.  Mary’s Name is Most Holy because the Almighty chose her to bear in her soul and her body the Incarnate Word of the Father.  May her Most Holy Name be praised!  May our Mother draw us closer to herself, so that she might lead us in blessing the Name of the Lord for ever!