Title Angelus Category Prayer Level L4 Pre-requisites Annunciation, Magnificat, Nativity, Kingdom parables, Salvation History, Sacraments (grace), Hail Mary, True Vine Sources CCC, Scripture, Dawn of the Messiah: The Coming of Christ in Scripture by Edward Sri, S.T.D, Catholic Encyclopedia, Sanctifying Your Day With the Angelus by Father Roger J. Scheckel, Liturgical time Anytime except Easter season Doctrinal points CCC 457-460: The Word became flesh in order to save us, for us to know God's love, to be our model of holiness and to make us children of God CC 511 The Virgin Mary uttered her yes "in the name of all human nature" By her obedience she became the new Eve, mother of the living. CCC 329: Angels are servants and messengers of God Direct aims To be familiar with the Angelus prayer and commit to praying it daily Indirect aim To help the young person connect their present reality with the Incarnation of Christ Materials Needed Word card: The Angelus. Words of prayer on cards: Leader: The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary: Response: And she conceived of the Holy Spirit. Hail Mary / Leader: Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Response: Be it done unto me according to Thy word. Hail Mary / Leader: And the Word was made Flesh: Response: And dwelt among us. Hail Mary / Leader: Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, Response: that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. / Leader: Let us pray: All: 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. Picture of Annunciation Picture of The Angelus by Jean-François Millet Candle and snuffer Opening (Young people wait outside the prayer space till they are called one by one/two by two if you have an Assistant. Each child places his/her bag outside/at back of the room, then blesses himself/herself with holy water. Catechist greets child:) Catechist/Assistant: Peace be with you...(christian name of child) Young person: Peace be with you... Ms/Mr/Auntie/Uncle (name of adult) (Young people proceed to area near Prayer table, either seated on chairs or on the floor.) Hello and welcome to the prayer space. Let us begin by turning to each other and offer each other the sign of Gods peace. (young people greet each other with a handshake, they should do so quietly) What day is it today? (response should be about the Liturgical day not the calendar date) Page 1
X, can you please go to the Liturgical Calendar and see if you can find out what day it is on the Liturgical Calendar? (Guide them through process if they don t know) So today is the... Sunday of Ordinary Time/Lent/Easter/Advent. How many of you have gone for Mass? (response) What were the readings about? (response) Let s find out some more. Y, can you please fetch the Missal? Can you please open the Missal and find us the... Sunday in Ordinary Time/Lent/Advent/Easter? (guide them through process) Can you please read out for us what today s theme is? (Y reads) Thank you very much. What does this mean? What does it mean to... (ask questions to clarify the theme and meanings of words) I wonder how... (ask wonder questions so they can reflect on what the theme means to them) In today s readings we will hear about (brief summary of the readings. Don t have to mention all 3 but the ones that they may be most familiar with e.g. OT & Gospels. Don t usually have to go through the Epistles as they are not so familiar yet with those) So as we begin our time in our prayer space, let us pray: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (can say or use same chant as used at Mass)... (use opening prayer from the Missal) Presentation (Optional: can also begin with a song approprate to the liturgical time) There s a song that reminds us of... (the theme) Today we re going to think about a prayer that is said by the Church everyday. It is usually accompanied by the ringing of the Church bells to remind us to pray this prayer. Does anybody know what this prayer is called? (the Angelus) The prayer is called The Angelus (place card) let s say that together The Angelus. What does the word Angelus sound like? (angel) So this prayer has something to do with an angel. What are some of the stories we ve heard before from the Bible that involves an angel? (help them them recount e.g. annunciation, nativity etc..) From these stories, what is the role or job of an angel? (response e.g. servants of God, messenger, helper, announcer, protector etc ) Let s listen to the words of the Angelus. It is an ancient prayer so you will hear old English words like thee and thy which mean you and your. As the words of the prayer are taken from the Bible, let us light a candle that reminds us of the Light of Christ that has come into the world. (light candle) When prayed as a group, the Angelus has a parts where the leader will start the prayer and everyone else will respond. Here is the first part: (place first card and read words, children do not have to read along:) Leader: The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary: Page 2
Response: And she conceived of the Holy Spirit. Primary Curriculum Version 2.1 May 2013 What event do you think these words refer to? When did an angel speak to Mary and she conceived of the Holy Spirit? (Annunciation) It was at the Annunciation, when the angel came to tell Mary she was going to be the mother of God s son, Jesus. (place picture of Annunciation) Remember Mary was a teenager at that time. It was common at that time that young girls would get married but here she is being told she will be the mother of God! I wonder how Mary felt when the Angel told her this? (response e.g. afraid, confused etc ) Let s look at the next part of the prayer: (place 2 nd card and read) Leader: Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Response: Be it done unto me according to Thy word. The word unto means to and thy means your. So this sentence means let it be done to me according to your word. What do these words remind us of? Who said these words? (Mary) What did Mary mean when she said she is the handmaid of the Lord? (she is God s servant) She says to let it be done to her according to your word. Who is the You here? (God, the angel is God s messenger so it is God s word) Mary joyfully agrees to follow God s plan even though it must have been a difficult thing for her - how is she doing to explain to others that she is pregnant with God s child? How would you describe Mary s attitude? (humble, obedient, trusting, sincere, loves God) Let s look at the third part of the prayer: (place card and read) Leader: And the Word was made Flesh: Response: And dwelt among us. The word dwelt means to be or live. Who do you think these words refer to? Who was made flesh and lived among us? (Jesus) God s word became flesh and Jesus was conceived in Mary s womb. We call this moment of God becoming flesh the Incarnation let s say that together the Incarnation. Would the Incarnation have been possible without Mary agreeing to it? (no) Page 3
This is why Mary is considered the first Christian disciple and a model follower of Jesus. She hears the word of God and follows it. While she was pregnant with Jesus, she literally carried the Word made flesh inside of her. We ask her to pray for us so that we too can be good Christian disciples. Let s look at the next part of the prayer: (place card and read): Leader: Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, Response: that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. What are the promises that Christ has made to us? (the promise of the Kingdom of God) On our own strength, can we enter God s kingdom? (no) Only God s love, His grace can help us enter into the Kingdom. We cannot work our way into God s kingdom. So how have we been made worthy of God s Kingdom? (through Baptism, the Sacraments that keep us worthy e.g. Eucharist and Reconciliation) The Sacraments are special moments when God pours out His grace on us so that we can be holy. Let s look at the last part of this prayer. (place card and read) Leader: Let us pray: All: 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. To beseech is to ask or beg. What are we asking for in this prayer? (for God s grace, so that we can be share in the glory of Christ s resurrection) What do we need to go through however before experiencing the resurrection? (the Passion and Cross) And when will we then experience that sharing in His resurrection? (at death and at the Parousia, when God will be all in all) The Passion is the suffering and death of Jesus. Jesus has died on the cross for us and 3 days later, He rose from the dead. Jesus light has already conquered death. But because Parousia is not here yet, God s Kingdom is not yet complete and so we may still experience crosses and sufferings in our life. What are some of the crosses and sufferings you experience in your life? (response e.g. stress. sickness, bullying etc ) In this prayer, we ask God to give us His grace so that we can persevere as we look forward to the Parousia when God will be all in all and we can be with God forever. Let s say the Angelus prayer together. I will lead and you can take the response parts. Between some of the prayers, we will recite the Hail Mary. (say prayer together, keep a moment of silence after the whole prayer) Page 4
I wonder why the Church invites us to say this prayer everyday? (response) Praying the Angelus reminds us that Jesus is the centre of our lives when we pray the Angelus, we are reminded of the Incarnation that moment when God became a man, to teach us about God s love and show us how to be holy, so that we can enter God s Kingdom. This prayer reminds us that wherever we are, we are on a journey with Jesus towards the Parousia when God will be all in all. As we pray the words of the Angelus, we also ask to follow Mary s example of trust and obedience to God. We ask Mary to help us follow Jesus just as she did. We also ask God to pour out His graces on us, to make our day holy. (place picture of The Angelus by Millet) What do you see here in this picture? (response) This is a very famous painting called the Angelus. It shows workers in a field. They have such a huge field to work on and there are only 2 of them. Yet they have stopped in the middle of their work to pray the Angelus. Churches will usually ring their bells 3 times a day - at 6am, at 12 noon and at 6pm to remind us to pray the Angelus. You can see a church painted in the distance and the people in this picture probably heard the church bells and stopped to pray. The sun is setting so it is probably in the evening around 6pm. Wonder Questions Song Activity Closing In Singapore, our church bells also ring for the Angelus, so if you are near a Catholic church, listen out for the bells. But even if you don t hear them, it is a good practise to pray the Angelus everyday at any time. As you pray the Angelus, know that all around the world, there are Catholics praying this prayer with you as we are one Church on the Vine of Christ together on a journey. I wonder how Mary felt when the Angel told her this? What are some of the crosses and sufferings you experience in your life? I wonder why the Church invites us to say this prayer everyday? You can play this video as a closing hymn for them to reflect on the Angelus sung in Latin (translations are in the video) Do explain to them that Latin is the official language of the Roman Catholic Church which unifies all believers around the world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7bbnchyw9e&hl=en-gb&gl=sg Make their own Angelus booklet by: copying out words of the prayer and drawing (best option as it helps them to remember better) or you can print the words and they cut and paste them with pictures or print from the following website for them to colour: (Note: Mary is traditionally in blue) https://docs.google.com/a/starhub.net.sg/file/d/0b5etrkl51fhmefr1ykvhmxze UzQ/edit?usp=sharing (10 minutes before Communal Prayer, remind those on the roster to get the respective roles ready by choosing the appropriate cards etc.. Then ring the bell for others to finish up work and gather at Prayer Table) Page 5
As we end our time in our prayer space, let us light the candle that reminds us of the Light of Christ we have experienced today and offer our thanksgiving to God for this time. (Catechist lights candle) (As you go through the chart, young person to stand when it is their turn, please prompt them as necessary) 1. Introductory Greeting (young person reads card) 2. Scripture reading (young person chooses a reading from the Sunday readings in the Missal. End with The Word/Gospel of the Lord. R: Thanks be to God/Praise to You Lord Jesus Christ.) 3. Responsorial Psalm (young person reads from the Missal) 4. Introduction to intercessory prayer (young person reads card) 5. Intercessory prayer (spontaneous prayers from young people can prompt them by asking is there anyone you would like to pray for, for yourself or your family, friends, the world? Please phrase it as a prayer) 6. Introduction to silence (young person reads card) 7. Silent meditation (start with 1 minute and build up slowly to longer period of time. 1 minute per year of life e.g. 10 year olds build up to 10 minutes silence if time permits) 8. Introduction to Traditional Prayer (young person reads card) 9. Traditional Prayer: Angelus 10. Dismissal (young person reads card) 11. Closing song (whatever young person chooses from a selection) & sign of the cross 12. Snuffing Candle Observations/ Reflections Dismiss young people two by two, Assistant to help them exit as you wait with young people at prayer table. Page 6