Excerpt from a letter regarding the Angelus, written to the Editor of the Catholic Digest – December 2004, by Erika Papp Faber:
"The reason we say it (the Angelus) at noon goes back more than 500 years. After the fall of Constantinople, the Turks began their advance up the Balkans, threatening to overrun Christian Europe. Pope Callistus III called for a crusade to stem the Moslem tide. Franciscan preacher John Capistrano went all across Europe preaching the crusade. On June 29, 1456, the pope called for the ringing of the church bells at noon and the recitation of the Our Father and the Angelus as a form of spiritual crusade. The Turks arrived at Nándorfehérvár (present-day Belgrade) a month sooner than they were expected. Only 18,000 ill-equipped peasants, priests, and students were ready to face the well-armed forces of Sultan Mohammed II.
Capistrano and Hungarian military leader János Humyadi led the defense. On July 22, the Turks broke through the walls of the city, and all seemed lost. But the Hungarians set fire to brushwork saturated with powder, pitch, and sulfur, and hurled it down on the onrushing Turks, who fled, leaving behind 40,000 dead defeated by a handful of the desperate men backed by the prayers of all Christendom.
Pope Callistus ascribed victory at Nándorfehérvár a mere three weeks after his call to recite the Angelus, the prayer recited at the ringing of the noon bells."
THE ANGELUS
(usually said at 6:00 AM; 12 noon and 6:00 PM.):
The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
And she conceived by the Holy Ghost.
Hail Mary……..
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 |
