This is a special selection for today’s Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, the liturgical celebration of the moment when the Angel Gabriel appeared to Our Lady with the invitation to become the Mother of God. Today’s piece is from a musical setting for the devotion called the Angelus, composed by German Franz Biebl in the mid-20th Century.
The Angelus is itself a mini-meditation on the Annunciation, and is customarily said at the hours of 6 am, 12 noon, and 6 pm each day; three times a day, we recall the moment when God became man for us! The format of the Angelus includes three passages narrating the Annunciation, each followed by the familiar prayer, the "Hail Mary."
Today's video clip is of the first text or "narration", with the Hail Mary. Note how the narration of the Annunciation story is “told” through a simple chant; at the moment when the Angel speaks to Mary, the music becomes polyphonic and transcendent. It reaches a climax at the center of the prayer: the name of Jesus. The chorus rises from this point, as though the Church Universal is responding, "Holy Mary, Mother of God..." The Hail Mary is a prayer that we say almost automatically, like breathing (and this can be a good thing, as we meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary); today's piece gives us the opportunity to dwell on the words of this prayer, hearing them expressed in a way that gives us a glimpse of their real beauty.
Translation:
The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary; And she conceived by 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.
The Angelus prayer continues as follows (today's clip is an abridged version; Biebl's entire piece can be found here):
Behold the handmaid of the Lord, Be it done unto me according to Thy word
Hail Mary...
And the Word became flesh (genuflect or bow) 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.