"NOW if the Lord could neither receive increase or decrease, what is this that Mary speaks of, My soul doth magnify the Lord? But if I consider that the Lord our Savior is the image of the invisible God, and that the soul is created according to His image, so as to be an image of an image, then I shall see plainly, that as after the manner of those who are accustomed to paint images, each one of us forming his soul after the image of Christ, makes it great or little, base or noble, after the likeness of the original so when I have made my soul great in thought, word, and deed, the image of God is made great, and the Lord Himself whose image it is, is magnified in my soul."
~Origen Adamantius (184 – 254). Quoted by St. Thomas Aquinas in Cantena Aurea: Gospel of St. Luke.
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| Visitation, by Mariotto Albertinelli. Oil on wood, 1503; Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. |