My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord

My Soul doth magnify the Lord

I want to share with you a way to stay connected to God this holiday season. It only takes a few minutes, is enjoyable and offers opportunity for deep insights. You can do this spiritual exercise alone or with your group or family. It can be accomplished in ten minutes or you can take it with you throughout the day, adding wisdom and insight to the passage as you go alone.

This is not my idea. I took it from an old book, but don’t recall which book or who the author is. If you know, send that to me. I believe the person I got this idea from wrote his favorite passages out in this fashion.  I enjoyed his and I would also like to read yours. Please consider sending me your finished works, signed, so that I could add them to my prayer book to share with others. If you do some as a family, let me know, I would love to share them with other families. Here is the plan for the exercise.

Taking the words of a passage of scripture you create a pome or verse with that scripture. There are several ways to do this, I will list four. I will include some of mine for examples. The goal is not to write nice verses, but to engage in the Lord. By giving ourselves a task, we can ponder; investigate both the passage we are writing about and the character of the Lord. If we are doing this as a group or family, we gain insight into how others see the Lord and we can learn from them.

1.       Take each letter of the word and try to write another word that describes, relates or illustrates the word it is taken from. Make your word start with the letter you are using. So “My” above could have the first word as “my,” “me,” “myself.” The second letter is “y” so your next word describes or illustrates “my.” I thought of “yourself,” and “you.” So the verse I wrote starts with Me, Yours.
2.       The second method to construct your verse is to write about your passage and start each line with a word that describes the passage as a whole, not just the word it came from. You are seeking to make a descriptive word list about your passage.
3.       The third form of building your verse is to start a sentence or phrase with the letter of the word you are on, building an acrostic pome.
4.       The forth way is to write a phrase or sentence and have the letter of the word in the phrase at some place. Underline or bold the letter so that you can easily see it.

Try It

You can use a PowerPoint.
 http://www.slideshare.net/RADrury/my-soul-doth-magnify-the-lord

Here is a link to some PDF samples
 http://www.slideshare.net/RADrury/my-soul-doth-magnify-the-lord-samples 

You may not be a word person, but this spiritual exercise is not about words, it just uses words. Take some time this holiday season and think about the Lord, ponder what He has done for us. The opening verse I have used is from Luke 1:46. This has become known as “Mary’s Song” or the “Magnificat.” Reading the whole passage (vs. 46 – 54) can help you see how a young women responded to the call of God on her life. It is good for us also to remember what the coming of the Lord means to us, to our society and to our world.

If you need help with words try going to http://www.thesaurus.com/. Type in your word in the search box and “bang” new words appear.

Book of Common Prayer

If you want to sing this passage, This is the test from the Book of Common Prayer.

If you have not done this before, it can be enjoyable and rewarding. I suggest you read through the passage and underline words that impact you. You than can sing/repeat these words for emphasis. This allows you to hold them longer in both your voice and heart.

My soul doth magnify the Lord : and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

For he hath regarded : the lowliness of his handmaiden.

For behold, from henceforth : all generations shall call me blessed.

For he that is mighty hath magnified me : and holy is his Name.

And his mercy is on them that fear him : throughout all generations.

He hath shewed strength with his arm : he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

He hath put down the mighty from their seat : and hath exalted the humble and meek.

He hath filled the hungry with good things : and the rich he hath sent empty away.

He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel : as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed for ever.

Here is a link to the coral music. http://www3.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Magnificat