December
9

The Lord Has Done Great Things for You

And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord;
and my spirit has leapt for joy in God my Saviour;
for He has looked upon the lowliness of His maidservant;
for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For He who is powerful has done for me great things, and holy is His name.
And His mercy is to generations of generations, to those who fear Him.
He has made might by His arm; He has scattered the proud in the thought of their heart.
He has taken down the powerful from thrones, and has exalted the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.
He has accepted His servant5 Israel, to remember mercy,
as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever. (Luke 1:46-55)

Humility is the essential of all adoration and of all worship, for without Humility the Lord cannot be worshiped and adored, for the reason that the Divine of the Lord cannot flow into a proud heart, that is, into a heart full of the love of self, for such a heart is hard; and is called in the Word a "heart of stone." But the Divine of the Lord can flow into a humble heart, because this is soft, and is called in the Word a "heart of flesh." Such a heart is receptive of the influx of good from the Lord, that is, of the Lord. (Arcana Coelestia 9377)

In heaven the man who knows, acknowledges, and believes from the heart-that is, from affection-that he has no power from himself, but that all the power he has is from the Lord, is said to be the least, and yet is the greatest, because he has power from the Lord. (Arcana Coelestia 4459)

That "God blessed" signifies the presence and grace of the Lord, is evident from the signification of "to bless." "To bless" in the Word, in the external sense signifies to enrich with every earthly and corporeal good … But in the internal sense, "to bless" is to enrich with all spiritual and celestial good, which blessing is and never can be given except by the Lord, and on this account it signifies His presence and grace, which necessarily bring with them such spiritual and celestial good. (Arcana Coelestia 981.1)

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