(no subject)

[tree_and_leaf]

Dear Radio 3, please do not play Te Lucis Ante Terminum, the Office Hymn for Compline just before 12 o'clock. It confuses me no end. I mean, my sense of time is suffering enough from no-one ringing the Angelus bell at noon, withouth me having the nagging feeling that I ought to be going to bed in the middle of the day.

OK, actually 'going for a drink' and then going to bed, but still.

Also: how, exactly, does it fit the 'fantasy' theme? Pretend it's Compline?

Comments

TL:DR, but this is what happens when you ask a Spike...

[tree_and_leaf]

Gladly. It's a Marian devotion commemorating the Incarnation, consisting of three verses describing the mystery of the Incarnation, interspersed with the Hail Mary, and finishing with the collect also used for the Feast of the Annunciation. It's not entirely clear how old it is - there's written evidence for it from the thirteenth century, but there were presumably older forms out of which it developed. The text runs in English:

V. The Angel of the Lord brought tidings unto Mary.
R. And she conceived by the Holy Ghost.

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.

V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
R. Be it unto me according to thy Word.

Hail Mary...

V. And the Word was made flesh.
R. And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary...

V. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray: We beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts, that as we have known the Incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, so by His Cross and Passion we may be brought unto the glory of His Resurrection; through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.


The Franciscans began the tradition, which later became more general, of saying it three times a day, at 6 am, 12 noon and at 6pm, and bells would be rung to remind people to pray (in fact, I believe that RTE 1 - Irish telly - transmits the bell at 6pm). In some places the evening bell survived the Reformation, mostly because people confused it with curfew. I got into the habit of saying it at 12 in Freiburg, it being a mostly Catholic area - I like it very much, because of its strong incarnational emphasis - it puts the person praying it, so to speak, in Mary's place (as Eckhart says, the Incarnation does me no good if I do not give birth to God in my own soul).

In some churches (including my own), the Angelus is said after Mass; oddly, this seems in my experience to be more common in high Anglican parishes than in Roman Catholic ones. It's not used in Easter, where the Regina Caeli is said instead.

ETA: the Rosary's not the same thing; it consists of blocks of ten Hail Marys interspersed with the Lord's Prayer, and preceded by the Creed and (I think) a number of other prayers; and of course you pray it with rosary beads. It is intended to encourage meditation on various events in the life of the Virgin, rather than being focussed exclusively on the Incarnation.

The Angelus doesn't involve any special kit, although people often say it in front of statues of Mary, assuming they have one handy.