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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
Basil of Caesarea
The first-fruit of the Spirit is peace and joy. Because then the holy Virgin had drunk in all the graces of the Spirit, she rightly adds, And my spirit hath leaped for joy. (exultavit.) She means the same thing, soul and spirit. But the frequent mention of leaping for joy in the Scriptures implies a certain bright and cheerful state of mind in those who are worthy. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
Know also that Scripture, seemingly, simply calls spirit and soul one and the same thing, but properly it distinguishes between them. For it calls the psychical man one who lives according to nature and is guided by human reasoning — for example, when hungry he eats, he hates his enemy, and in general in nothing appears to rise above nature; but it calls spiritual the one who overcomes the laws of nature and sets his mind on nothing human. Such is the distinction in Scripture between soul and spirit (1 Cor. 2:14–15; Gal. 6:8). …
Western Saints
Ambrose of Milan
The soul of Mary therefore magnifies the Lord, and her spirit rejoiced in God, because with soul and spirit devoted to the Father and the Son, she worships with a pious affection the one God from whom are all things. But let every one have the spirit of Mary, so that he may rejoice in the Lord. If according to the flesh there is one mother of Christ, yet, according to faith, Christ is the fruit of all. For every soul receives the word of God if only he be unspotted and free from sin, and preserves it with unsullied purity.
Bede
Because the spirit of the Virgin rejoices in the eternal Godhead of the same Jesus. (i. e. the Saviour,) whose flesh is formed in the womb by a temporal conception.
Bonaventure
There is also intimated the affection of the one praising not only as grateful, but as joyful, by exulting in the divine salvation, when it is added: And my spirit has exulted in God my savior, that is, in God the savior, so that she could say that word of the Psalm: "My soul shall exult in the Lord and shall delight in his salvation"; and again: "My heart and my flesh have exulted in the living God." Truly she could now say that word of Song of Songs 1: "The king has brought me into his storerooms: we shall exult and rejoice in …
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