My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior

To magnify something is to make it appear larger—thus the magnifying glass, and reading glasses—and to magnify someone is to praise them. With things, this is a matter of appearance. It is helpful to enlarge something in order to see it more clearly. Praise of persons is also a matter of appearance—it heightens aspects of their character or draws attention to their achievements. It is also, on the part of the one who praises, an expression of an attitude or inner disposition. Someone who truly praises others thinks well of them, has good will towards them, wishes to honour them, does not want in any way to diminish or belittle them. Such praise is truly selfless—it doesn’t attempt to grasp a little bit of the praise, or bask in the glory. It does not calculate its own interests in magnifying the other. In this sense, true praise and authentic glorification expresses real humility, since it recognizes that in giving praise, it is not 'about me' but the one praised. This is so obviously true and important when it comes to God, uniquely worthy of all praise and honour. It is also true of the Mother of God and all the saints, for whom a relative praise and honour spring from our lips. But it is tremendously important that we see in Mary’s magnification of God a clear example and pattern for the believer of a desire, a willingness, an eagerness to enlarge and magnify others. We are to build one another up, not to make each other feel small.