Mary's Magnificat is not just a hymn of praise to God. It is that and much more, a manifesto of revolutionary nonviolence and a call, not to arms, but to disarmament and justice. . . . She publicly proclaims what God is doing in the world — bringing justice to the poor, fulfilling his promise of peace. She testifies that God is a God of mercy, a God of nonviolence, a God of peace.
Such serious words cause trouble in our own times, too. Mary's Magnificat was banned in Argentina in the mid-1970s because the Mothers of the Disappeared published it as a call for nonviolent resistance to the military junta. The words are so powerful, they are considered by some to be dangerous.
— John Dear, Mary of Nazareth, Prophet of Peace