The Angelus

Have you ever heard of the Angelus?

If you have, do you say it?

The Angelus is one of my favorite prayers. I was one of the first prayer that I regularly took on when I returned to the Church. The first one was the morning offering - the formal one has gone by the wayside though because I lost the prayer card and now I just say it as it comes. Thankfully, I've been given the grace to retain the Angelus prayer and appreciate the fact that there are definite times in which to say it --- that helps jog my memory to actually say it!

If you're not familiar with this prayer you'll want to know that it notes three essential moments in Christianity. The Angelus is primarily addressed to Our Lady and asks her to intercede/pray for us. The prayer closes with a direct request to God asking to be granted the salvation for which Christ died.

There is no clear history of the origins of the Angelus. Even why there are times that have been appointed for the praying of it aren't clear. Although it would be nice to know the history, because I've always liked knowing the background of things, I kind of like that reason for the times isn't known - it kind of frees me up to pray the prayer WITHIN the hour, if I forget at the top of the hour. That let's me be faithful to the practice, even though things often slip my mind.

The times for saying the Angelus are 6 AM, Noon and 6 PM. Jean-Francois Millet's painting that is included with this post shows potato farmers faithfully pray the Angelus. If you look closely, in the background of the painting you can see the church steeple. The Church bells ringing the hour would have let the people know the hour so they might stop to say the Angelus and then return to their work, as if no interruption had occurred. I see it as the Church helping her people to be mindful of God throughout their day, and the people being faithful to that connection. It makes one mindful that there is much help Mother Church affords us, that we only need to avail ourselves of it. But I digress.

The prayer itself is:

The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary * And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. * Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord * Be it done unto me according to Thy word.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. * Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

And the Word was made Flesh * And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. * Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, * that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray:
Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.
Amen.

Of course, Catholics would begin and end the prayer with "The Sign of the Cross."

Just as this was one of the first prayers that I began to regularly pray as I was coming back in to full communion with the Church, this would have been one of the first snippets that I would have put into a blog at that time, had I had a blog then. For that reason, I thought it should be included here.

The prayers and devotions we weave into the cloak of daily spiritual practices is an individual, personal, decision. The inclusion of each might not always bear with it clear moment or reason for deciding to so do. Saying the Angelus in my youth was like that. Well, at noon at school you could pin the reason on the nuns who made you stand to say it. For that matter, I probably never even thought of the words - just said them - didn't really PRAY them. Now, my foremost reason for saying the Angelus is for what is said within it. The Angelus represents a fuller membership in the Catholic Church this time around because I, generally, deeply pray it, rather than just say it. Yes, I said generally -- that is because when I pray it with my son, I still do so partially thinking of him praying it. Of course, I do also like to say the Angelus because it gives me an opportunity for an exercise in faithfulness (with a touch of wiggle room in the timing!).