March 25 2025 - Annunciation - Angelus Prayer (school mass)

 For many years now, the very first thing I do in the morning—before getting up and getting ready for the day, before I check my emails and text messages, before I check my calendar, before I make my breakfast, before even getting out of bed—is that I pray a prayer inspired by the feast we celebrate today. 

It is called the Angelus prayer—angelus is the latin word for An
gel—and it goes something like this: The Angel of the Lord announced to mary, that she would conceive of the Holy Spirit. And then I pray the Hail Mary. Then, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word” And then I pray the Hail Mary, and then “The word was made flesh, and dwelt among us”, and then I pray the Hail Mary. And then there is a concluding portion.

But those three ideas—that the angel announced God’s plan to Mary, that she said yes, and that because of that yes, God took flesh—are three very important ideas—three ideas which are at the heart of today’s feast—and three ideas that it is very good to start your day with.

Why? For one, it is good to be reminded that God has a plan for each one of us, that we should be listening to the voices of God’s Holy Angels, and that Mary is at the heart of that plan. Secondly, it’s good to be reminded that when God’s plan is made known to us, we are supposed to say “yes” to God, God I am your handmaid, God let me be your servant in all things, in every way. And Thirdly, it is very important to recall that God really and truly took flesh—the Word took flesh—because it reminds us of who Jesus is—truly God and truly man and that we are called to be his disciples. God became one of us, so that we can become like Him.

So I invite you every day, pray that Angelus prayer. By the way, I don’t just pray it once, I pray it three times, upon waking, at noon, when the noon bells ring here at Church, and at six pm, when they ring again, they are, after all, called the Angelus bells, for that reason.

Pray the Angelus, so that your day can be infused with God’s goodness, so that you can recall the presence of the Angels, the example and goodness of our blessed mother, and that we may become more and more like Christ every day, God who took flesh that we may share in his divinity for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

4th Sunday of Advent 2020 - Advent Angelus

One of the most striking features of our beautiful church of St. Ignatius of Antioch is our magnificent bell tower. It is the tallest church bell tower in the diocese of Cleveland, 240 feet tall. You can see the tower from miles away; you can hear it ringing from miles away as well. 

Every day, as you might have noticed the Church bells ring at 12noon and at 6pm. In the old days, they would ring at 6am as well: 6, noon, and six, to mark the day’s beginning, middle, and end. For many centuries throughout the Catholic world, it has been tradition to stop what you are doing, when you hear the Church bells at those hours, and to pray. A nice way to keep the day directed to the glory of God. The bells ringing at 6, noon, and 6, in fact, are known as the Angelus Bells, because of the particular prayer, known as the Angelus, which is offered at those hours. 

If you don’t know the Angelus, it’s very easy to learn. It consists of three little antiphons each followed by a Hail Mary, and then it concludes with a short prayer that is used on this 4th Sunday of Advent, the Collect Prayer that preceded the liturgy of the word. This 4th Sunday of Advent could be called Angelus Sunday, because our readings and liturgical prayers are the inspiration for the Angelus Prayer.

The Angelus Prayer begins Angelus Domini, Nuntiavit Mariae, The Angel of the Lord announced to Mary, and she conceived by of the holy spirit.  And  like I said, the Hail Mary, is then prayed. Then Ecce Ancilla Domini, Behold, I am the Handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy Word. And then another Hail Mary. And finally, Et Verbum Caro factum est. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. And then the third Hail Mary. 

I’ve been praying the Angelus Prayer every day for many, many years, since seminary. I usually wake up a few minutes before 6am, and so I pray it first thing in the morning. Even when I sleep in a little bit, it’s the first prayer I offer each day. 

The Angelus is a very important prayer because it calls to mind one of the most important events of human history. It was an event that God had been planning for thousands and thousands of years—a collaboration between angels, humans and the Three Persons of the Trinity. The Angelus reminds us of this amazing plan of God to save humanity from sin and death. And it reminds us that we are respond to God like Mary did, saying to God, “may it be done to me according to your Word…may God’s will be done in my life…may I respond to God with faith, always, daily, many times a day.” And the Angelus reminds us who Jesus is. He is God—The Word made flesh. He’s not just an ordinary baby, he’s not just another worldly teacher, he’s God, and we owe him our love, our devotion, our worship.

Praying the Angelus opens our mind and soul to this most important event, for one, to give God honor, and two, so we don’t begin to forget, and take it for great it for granted. So we’ll continue to ring those Angelus bells, to announce to the neighborhood our belief in the incarnation of Christ, as long as we’re here, for those bells pierce through the secular noise, don’t they, and at least for a moment, remind the religious and non-religious alike, of the world of faith.

One of the most repeated requests I received upon being made pastor of St. Ignatius was to reintroduce the ringing of the bells during Mass. We ring them, these days, when we are fortunate enough to have an altar server or someone to ring them. 

The ringing of the bells during Mass is tied to the Angelus. The first time the bells are rung at Mass, is during the epiclesis, when the priest calls down the Holy Spirit over the gifts, just like that first line of the Angelus taken from our Gospel today, when the Holy Spirit descends upon the Blessed Mother. The second and the third time they ring, they call our attention to the fact that the Word who took flesh in womb of the Blessed Virgin, is now present in our midst, when bread and wine are really and truly transformed into the body and blood of Jesus.

So, the ringing of the bells during mass, is not just for aesthetical reasons or that we want mass to be noiser or more musical. Rather, they are part of the rich tapestry of our faith, that helps us to respond to what God has done for our salvation, and what God continues to do, for us. 

And that’s what Advent is all about, no? What Christmas is all about: being mindful and grateful and celebrating what God has done, and what he continues to do, and responding accordingly.

Pope Benedict reflected upon this sentiment, wroting, “Though it is God who takes the initiative of coming to dwell in the midst of men, and he is always the main architect of this plan, it is also true that he does not will to carry it out without our active cooperation. Therefore, to prepare for Christmas means to commit oneself to build 'God's dwelling with men.' 

That’s why the Christian people takes such pride in building such beautiful churches with church bells and bell towers, to signal God’s dwelling with humanity. 

Every Sunday, at noon, the Pope gives a short little Angelus lesson. And last year, on this 4th Sunday of Advent, Pope Francis urged us to emulate Mary in this task and mission of cooperating with God’s plan and ask her help. Pope Francis said, “we admire our Mother for her response to God’s call to mission, we ask her to help each of us to welcome God’s plan into our lives with sincere humility and brave generosity.”

Every Christian essentially has the vocation of Mary—how we see Mary responding to God in the Gospel today—to respond to God with total faith, total surrender, that we may become a dwelling place for God. 

I can’t recommend strongly enough to pray the Angelus, at least once a day, if not thrice a day. If you don’t live within earshot of a church, you might consider setting alarms on your phone to remind you to pray at 6 noon and 6. For it will certainly help your life to be more deeply infused with grace. Who of us couldn’t use a little bit more mindfulness of the angels, our lady, and the Holy Trinity?

There’s the famous movie line that “every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings”. It’s really not theologically accurate. There isn’t a room of wingless angels waiting on us to ring our church bells. Rather, every time a bell rings, we are being reminded in a beautiful, angelic manner, to respond to God with the surrender and trust and faith of Blessed Virgin, the Queen of Angels, and Mother of Our Lord. We are being reminded to become, like her, Arks for God, tabernacles for God, dwelling places for God—to stop whatever we’re doing for a moment to make sure that we are building God’s dwelling and following God’s plan.

May the final days of Advent take on the profound characteristics of the Angelus—openness to visitation from the angels, profound trust and humility and surrender to the will of God, and for greater openness to the Lord Jesus taking flesh in our lives for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

December 20 2019 - Angelus Bells and Remembering the Incarnation

One of my favorite features of St. Ignatius of Antioch church is our large bell tower. It is the tallest catholic church bell tower in the diocese of Cleveland, 240 feet tall. You can see the tower from miles
away, and you can hear it ringing from miles away as well.

Every day, as you might have noticed the Church bells ring at 12 noon and at 6pm. In the old days, they would ring at 6am as well. 6, noon, and six, to mark the day’s beginning, middle, and end, but they are also rung for a religious significance, for they are known as the Angelus bells. Angelus is the word in the latin language for Angel.

There is also a prayer that goes along with the ringing of those angelus bells, called, The Angelus Prayer, which calls to mind one of the most important events in human history, again, the event we just read about in today’s Gospel.

The Angel of the Lord announced unto Mary, and she conceived a child by the power of the holy spirit.

Why is this important? Well, it had never happened before and it will never happen again. It was an event that Isaiah had foretold, as we heard in our first reading, that a virgin would conceive a child through the intervention of God, and that the child’s name would be Emmanuel, which means “God is with us”. It was something God had been planning for thousands and thousands of years—His plan to save us from our sins.

I’ve been praying the Angelus Prayer every day for many, many years, and I believe it is a very important prayer for us Christians. For Christians need reminders of who God is, what God has done, and what God calls us to. And the Angelus does just that. It reminds us that God has done this amazing thing for us and for our salvation. And it reminds us that we are respond to God like Mary did, saying to God, “may it be done to me according to your Word…may God’s will be done in my life…may I respond to God with faith, always, daily, many times a day.” And the Angelus reminds us who Jesus is. He is God made flesh. He’s not just an ordinary baby, he’s not just another worldly teacher, he’s God, and we owe him our love, our devotion, our worship.

[Morning Mass] In the O Antiphon Today, Christ is called the Clavis David, the Key of David who frees us from prison and from the shadow of death. By calling to mind what our great Lord has done for us, may our minds and hearts be freed from selfishness and fear, that we may glorify the Lord in all we say and do today, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

[School Mass] You will notice something different at Mass today, we will be ringing bells during mass. The bells at Mass are very similar to the Angelus bells. The first time they ring, they are a sign of the holy spirit descending upon the altar, just like the holy spirit descended upon mary. And the second and the third time they ring, they call our attention to the fact that Jesus is now present in our midst, bread and wine have really and truly become transformed into the body and blood of Jesus, our Lord.

As you prepare for Christmas break, remember the reason for Christmas, that mary said yes to God, and that God became human to save us from our sins. May you and your families be blessed this Christmas with profound faith, hope, love and the peace of the Christ-Child, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.


 
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We raise up our prayers of petitions, as we await with longing the Advent of Christ the Lord.

That the witness of the Church may help all nations come to believe in the Lordship of Jesus.

That our president and all civil servants will carry out their duties with justice, honesty, and respect for the dignity of every human life.  We pray to the Lord.

That Christ may banish disease, drive out hunger, ward off every affliction, and strengthen all who suffer persecution for the sake of the Gospel.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.