IS PRAYING ANGELUS MORE THAN APPRECIATION FOR CATHOLICS?
THANKS GIVING. . .
In some sense, just as a little child must
first feel assured that those possessions he is fondest of will be duly
appreciated, before he will agree to share them with another, so God often
acts with us about revealing what is especially precious to Him.
It might surprise us to know that one of
these divine valuables is names, and
even a short perusal of Holy Scripture lends abundant proof of it. Time and
again we come across sacred events whose participants bear names not merely of
supernatural meaning, but of direct celestial origin. Few concepts are more
familiar or human to us than a name, and God often takes advantage of this by
inserting “mystical” names into events as a simple yet effective means of
awakening in souls a healthy fear of Him—or a fearless love of Him.
A Prophecy…
Behold a
Virgin shall conceive and bear a son; and His name shall be called
Emmanuel. (Isaias 7: 14)
Seven hundred years after its utterance,
this prophecy of the holy Isaias came to pass. Emmanuel—God with us. Was anything ever revealed to
fill our hearts with greater delight? Never has God so outdone Himself in
forming a name of such exquisite appropriateness; never was there a single word
so perfectly self-contained in meaning and implication. We yearned with a
great yearning for the coming of our Emmanuel, for the time when God would be
with us indeed, walking His earth. And, in ardent response on His part, God
desired with desire to hasten the time of this prophecy’s fulfillment, the
first sublime step being the accomplishment of this Divine conception so
longed-for, in that moment we call the Incarnation—when God became Man.
A Meaning…
V. The Angel of the Lord declared unto
Mary.
R. And she conceived of the Holy Ghost.
With disarming simplicity the very essence
of the Annunciation is given to us by these opening lines of the Angelus. However,
if we desire to understand both this event and the Angelus more fully, it is
necessary to turn with equal simplicity and childlike trust to what is termed
the “Deposit of Faith.” It contains all the beliefs of the Catholic Church,
consisting, as it does, of Church tradition and Holy Scripture—in this
particular instance the first chapter of the Gospel of Saint Luke. To the Depositum Fidei, then, let us turn
indeed, and now think back:
It is 3:00 on the afternoon of March
twenty-fifth; it is a Friday. Taking on the appearance of a man, the Archangel
Gabriel, whose name means Strength of God,
leaves heaven for earth; he has a divine proposal to deliver—and a reply to
receive. His destination? A certain little house on a quiet street in the tiny
Galilean town of Nazareth, for there she lives, whose coming God has
anticipated from all eternity. She has ravished the Heart of God with her love
for Him and her humility before Him, and in her we find the only perfect source
of consolation that God has reserved for Himself on earth-the only perfect
refuge of comfort He has allowed Himself. Having remained faultless of any
offence against God—never by one thought, word or deed did she fail to measure
up to the supreme and consummate perfection of a creature conformed to the
Will of God—her purity and sinlessness is beyond utterance. Her vocation was so
select and sublime and divine that He created her soul free from Original Sin,
the sin of Adam. Thus at this moment her glorious title is that of the
Immaculate Conception—but, kneeling in prayer, she is soon to be offered
another…
“And the angel being come in, said unto
her: ‘Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women…Behold
thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a Son: and thou shalt
call his name Jesus.’ ”
The Virgin of virgins asks, “How shall this
be done, because I know not man?”
“And the angel answering said to her: ‘The
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow
thee. And therefore the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the
Son of God.’ ”
Having thus made known to her His
desire-and only after receiving her sweet and meek consent:
“V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord:
R. Be it done to me according to thy
word.”—did God effect an event greater than that of the creation of the
universe and the dawn of time. For within the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary
was conceived a God-Man—the Savior
of the human race.
V. And the Word was made flesh,
R. And dwelt among us.
Lo! Eternity and time have met, the Word
has been made flesh! The Lord
has become Our Lord—Jesus
Christ. This holiest of names, Jesus, means Savior, Christ
means the Anointed One; and now
indeed the Redemption of the world is at hand. Oh, can we not feel the very
trembling of the angels? It is the Incarnation that has finally come to pass!
Although 1981 years old, It is a Beauty ever new. Jesus said: “Abraham
rejoiced that he might see My day;”—even the holy ones of the Old Law may now
rest, satiated—”he saw it and was glad.” (John 8:56) Emmanuel—God—is with us,
and He shall not be taken away.
Now may we say:
V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God,
R. That we may be made worthy of the
promises of Christ.
To restless human eyes, the significance of
this Event of all events, revealed by God in such simplicity, can appear
stripped of any great importance; thus in most hearts it endures a painful
lack of appreciation, especially in these days. But our Holy Mother the
Church, being a mother indeed, will not have us to be ungrateful children. Knowing
well our forgetful tendencies, in the Angelus she has provided a means of
keeping alive within us that awe and wonder properly due to the mystery of the Incarnation.
A Method . . .
The Angelus should be recited three times a
day: as early in the morning as possible (at 6:00 a.m., or upon awakening),
again at noon, and once more at 6:00 p.m. It may be said privately, of course,
but whenever recited with others, one person leads it by saying aloud the
verses and the first half of the Hail Mary—that
is, until “blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” The others make the
responses and say the second part of the Hail
Mary;—then all join in to say the closing prayer. For the sake of uniformity,
where the faithful may not be gathered together in one place, the traditional
practice has the Angelus said to the stroke of a bell—three rings for each
verse, response, and Hail Mary; then
nine more throughout the final prayer—eighteen strokes in all.
A Legacy…
Numberless are the saints who were born or
who died, by the providence of God, “as the Angelus was sounding” from the town
bell or from local Church and monastery steeples. Thus was a holy future often
prophesied, or a life of heroic sanctity confirmed, by Him who is pleased to
reveal, as He sees fit, those souls whose lives further the effect of that
Incarnation so admirably honored in the Angelus.
There is not a saint to be named, of recent
centuries, who did not claim devotion to the Angelus. To name but one, Saint
Germaine Cousin. The little shepherdess of Pibrac in France, would drop to her
knees in prayer upon hearing the Angelus ring—even while crossing a stream.
And the bells themselves are greatly reverenced.
Many are preserved, even from before the Middle Ages, and the greater number
bear inscriptions, usually in Latin, that indicate their holy employment.
Often in France they read Ave Maria, and
many in England honor Saint Gabriel—for example: “I am sweet as honey, and am
called Gabriel’s bell,” and “Gabriel the messenger bears joyous tidings to holy
Mary.”
A Reason…
Through the Annunciation came the
Incarnation; by the Incarnation is Christmas brought to us. From the beginning
that is Christmas we arrive at the end that is our Redemption on Calvary.
Through Calvary we are given the Resurrection, then the Ascension—through
which, if we save our souls, we attain the bliss of heaven and the Vision of
God.
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.
Through the Angelus we say “Thank you” to
God and His Holy Mother. And, through the Angelus, we poor pilgrims also beg
the grace of strength to faithfully persevere through our exile upon earth,
unto a share of eternal life in our true and lasting homeland.
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