Part of the Matheson Trust Sacred Audio Collection
The prayer known commonly by its incipit, the Angelus, recalls the Annunciation by recreating the time and space of Nazareth in the imagination and experience of the one at prayer through a series of antiphons and recitations of the Ave Maria prayed three times a day, at 6:00am, noon, and 6:00pm.
Hearing the bells throughout a medieval town or city had become an integral part of marking time for monastic and civil life, but a different ring pattern was assigned to signal this prayer. The particular triple rings created moments of the day which were at once both public and private, intended for both monastics and laity alike, and lent itself to structured prayer not only within a church but at home or in the fields.
The Angelus
• Sung in Latin by Harpa Dei.
• Sung in Latin (Gregorian) by Verbum Gloriae.
— Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariæ,
— Et concepit de Spiritu Sancto.
— Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. *
— Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostræ. Amen.
— Ecce ancilla Domini.
— Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.
— Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. *
— Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostræ. Amen.
— Et Verbum caro factum est.
— Et habitavit in nobis.
— Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. *
— Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostræ. Amen.
— Ora pro nobis, Sancta Dei Genitrix.
— Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.
Oremus.
Gratiam tuam, quæsumus, Domine, mentibus nostris infunde; ut qui, Angelo nuntiante, Christi Filii tui incarnationem cognovimus, per passionem eius et Crucem ad resurrectionis gloriam perducamur. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum.
— Amen.
Read here “Echoes of the Annunciation: the Angelus and a Spirituality of Time and Space through Hearing” by Sr Maria Theotókos (Elinor) Adams, SSVM.
