The Angelus

Glyn and I were walking through a department store in the mall today. At 6:00 pm, all of a sudden everyone stopped what they were doing. I asked Glyn what was happening. She told me that they were praying The Angelus. It is traditional to pray the prayer at 6:00 am, noon, and 6:00 pm.

The prayer is a devotion to the Incarnation. So over the loudspeaker, the prayer was broadcast. It goes like this:

The Angel of the Lord declared to 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 . . .

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

Hail Mary . . .

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.

I was amazed to be standing in a public place and see all people stop what they were doing for prayer. I have never known anything like it in my life. I have grown up in a place of supposedly religious tolerance. However, practicing one's religion in public is not really tolerated in the United States.

We have freedom of religion, but what has happened instead is that we can practice whatever we want, as long as we keep quiet about it.

It was also surprising, in a predominately Catholic country (over 80 percent call themselves Catholic), that they have a national holiday for the end of Ramadan, which is a Muslim holiday (only 5 percent of the country are Muslim).