On Friday mornings, I wake up at 3:30 to drive to Manchester to run with my handful of running mates for a 5AM start. We finish out the hour and then we go our separate ways. Recently, I noticed that when we start and finish on the hour, my backup alarm on my TIMEX Indiglo watch chimes at 6AM. The bell chime at 6AM launches me back to those early mornings at Saint Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers—when the bell would chime for the start of Morning Prayer, which always began with the Angelus prayer. The Angelus recounts the Annunciation and our Blessed Mother’s “Fiat”—her all in yes to God through the Angel Gabriel—to bring life, the source of all life, Jesus Christ into this world. It also reminds us of our Blessed Mother’s total trust in God, for whom, as the Angel Gabriel assures, “nothing is impossible.”

The Angelus devotion is prayed at the sixth and twelfth hour of each day. So, when I’m paying attention enough to hear the bell chime, whether at 6AM on the TIMEX or at the noonday hour at any one of the area churches, I pray the Angelus: “May it be done unto me according to thy word.”

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.

"The Annunciation" (1898) by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937).