Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Luke (1: 39-45) in which Mary goes to visit her pregnant older cousin Elizabeth who lives in the hill country of Judea.

Fr Paul says this Gospel concentrates on Mary’s bodily attention to the bodily needs of her elderly relative. With her own baby on the way, she would have plenty of other priorities, making her long journey a real act of kindness.

Her canticle, sums up God’s faithfulness to his promises, focused on his gifts to this simple peasant girl. It combines a wonderful sense of the holiness of God with warmth of gratitude, showing the thoughts that revolved constantly in her mind. As is fitting in the mouth of a girl whose only knowledge of books was the Bible, Mary’s song is a texture of scriptural phrases.

We cannot assume that Luke wrote it down as Mary dictated it, for putting words in the mouth of his characters is a feature of Luke the historian; but it must reflect her thinking. If any theme resounds again and again throughout the Bible, it is God’s care for the poor, the simple and those in need.

Fr Paul says it is this that sets the Hebraeo-Christian tradition apart from the ways of the world.