The Angel of the Lord Declared unto Mary

Catholic Truth and Beauty

 

"The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary, and she conceived by the Holy Spirit"

Oh what profound words and what a marvellous fact is contained in the above quotation from the first words of the Angelus prayer.

The Archangel Gabriels salutation to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, in the womb of a human being.

 







 





"Behold, the Handmaid of the Lord, Let it be done unto me, according to Your Word"

The humility and acceptance of Mary, the young innocent girl from Nazareth, the Jewish Virgin Teenager, completely at one with Gods Divine plan for her, she gives her consent to become the Mother of the Saviour and exercises her free will as a human being to accept Gods will for her life.
 

Marys "Yes" indicates how absolutely "Full of Grace" and in tune she was with the Will of God.

At that moment, Mary becomes Mother of Jesus, the Incarnate Word, Mother of God (Jesus being both God and Man) and Mother of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ.

Mary is therefore Mother of us all, both living and dead, who have been Baptised.

 

" And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us"

The Creator of the Universe, of all things visible and invisible, who created Human Beings out of nothing.
He who always was, who always is and who always will be.

He who created the Sun, Moon and Stars
The God who created the animals and the birds,
He who created us in our mothers wombs
He who loves us with a love beyond our human comprehension, lowers Himself and takes flesh as a Human and is conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

The second person of the Blessed Trinity is actually incarnated into Human history as Jesus, the Christ, the only Son of God.

"God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God.

Begotten, not made, consubstantial (of the same being) with the Father" as the Apostolic Creed says

 





 

 

 The Angelus prayer which accompanies the ringing of the Angelus bells at 12 noon and 6pm has for centuries reminded us Roman Catholics that God became Man in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. God has entered Human history and has become one of us.

 

I heard a wonderful tale once, about why this event occurred at all, it goes like this:

A woman was once sitting at home in her farmhouse alone on Christmas Eve, her husband having died and her children grown up and living abroad.

Her neighbour asked her if she would accompany her later on that evening to Midnight Mass for Christmas.

Absolutely not she said, how could anybody believe that Almighty God lowered himself to become a little helpless baby born in a stable.

Could anybody but a fool think that God became man? sure its all nonsense,

God who created the Universe and all that is within it, why would God do such a thing?

What reason would he have? what would be the point?

 

The neighbour was surprised by the response of this previously Mass attending neighbour but said nothing or little in return and accepted the rejection without comment.

 

Later on that Christmas Eve, as the darkness of the evening was coming on, the woman in the farmhouse heard a very loud commotion in the farmyard outside.

On investigation she discovered that a  flock of wild Geese had actually landed in the farmyard and were flapping around and making a huge racket with their honking, flapping of wings etc.

 

Oh my goodness, she said to herself, what am I going  to do to help them? the night is descending and the Foxes will surely attack and kill them if they dont get into a safe shelter.

The woman proceeded to shoo them away out of the enclosed farmyard, but each time they returned as though they wanted to get into her warm hay shed.

Eventually, she opened the door of the shed, put on the light inside so that they could see it was a safe place and tried to direct them to safety within the shed.

Each time she tried, the honking grew louder, the head and neck bobbing increased and they refused to go in.
This went on untill dusk was over and the dark night descended.

Eventually, she sat down on a step exhausted and burst into tears of frustration.

She thought to herself:

"If only I could speak to them in thier own language, if only for one minute I could actually become one of them and speak to them, and tell them how much I love them and want to save them from the Fox"

 

At that moment she realised that she had received the answer to all her doubts about the Incarnation.

God became Man for that very reason.
 

"And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us"

 

She picked up the phone to her neighbour and told her she most certainly would be attending Midnight Mass.

The Geese took off and flew to a safe roosting, the message they had been entrusted with had been delivered!

 

 

 Prayer of the Angelus

 

"Pour Forth we beseech Thee o Lord, Thy Grace into our hearts, that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ your 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. A Men."

 

At the end of the account of the Annunciation to Mary by the Archangel Gabriel in the Gospel of St Luke, at the very end of the account are the words "And the Angel departed from her"

Mary, now Mother of the Saviour of the world, is left alone and like ourselves without Angelic help..

Mary, the Immaculate Virgin, bearing the Christ child in her womb, is left like ourselves, to get on with it.

 

So next time the Angelus bell rings out its melodius chimes, take a moment to remember that generations of Roman Catholics have for hundreds of years, paused at this moment to remember that God became Man in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary in time and in history.

 

As Jesus Himself said: "I am the Light of the world, if anyone follows me, he will have the Light of Life"

 

 

"ET VERBUM CARO FACTUM EST"

 

"AND THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH"