One mistake almost every Christian makes while saying the Angelus

19th century painting of Our Lady. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It's very common for a Christian to say the Angelus - the Christian devotional prayer in memory of the incarnation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at 7 PM everyday. But there's something wrong we do here. Nothing wrong with praying or the prayer. Neither how we say it. The problem is what we say. That too we go wrong in the very first response. 

Below is what should be said:

V. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary. 

R. And she conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And here's what we often land up saying:

V. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary. 

R. And she WAS conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Mary was not conceived, but she conceived. Mary was born of natural causes, but the fact that she was able to bear a child still being a virgin makes it 'she conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.'

I hope we realize the mistake we make on a daily basis and correct ourselves. I have often corrected people on this and been a witness to their facepalm moment. The irony with the world is that we hardly pay attention to what we say, but are critical of what others say.

Practicality

A pastor, a doctor, and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed, "What's with these guys? We must have been waiting for 15 minutes!" The doctor chimed in, "I don't know, but I've never seen such ineptitude".

The pastor said, "Hey, here comes the greens keeper. Let's have a word with him." "Hi John. Say, what's with that group ahead of us? They're rather slow, aren't they?" The greens keeper replied, "Oh, yes, that's a group of blind firefighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire! last year, so we always let them play for free anytime."

The group was silent for a moment. Then the pastor said, "That's so sad I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight." The doctor said, "Good idea. And I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist buddy and see if there's anything he can do for them."

The engineer, after much thought said, "Why can't these guys play at night?"

Lesson: No emotions please, only practicality works here.

A class in Theology

A group of kids, with some in their early childhood, came to the church on a war footing  to meet the Parish priest. “Where is the parish priest???” they enquired. “Down the corridor, in the room on the right” the sacristan replied looking at the anger on their face coupled with great dejection, without raising a question. The kids knocked on the door. “Come in” said the priest wondering who came to visit him at this hour in the morning. “Father, we're angry, very angry with God”. The priest thinking that this was not an ordinary issue folded his newspaper and kept it aside along with his cup of tea. “Why, what happened”. “Father, do you know, our cat was very sick. We prayed to God, so much, every day, every single day so he would cure him of his sickness. We showed him to the doctor, gave him medicines, took great care of him but to no avail. God has failed us. We are very angry with Him. Now we demand an answer as to why God did this. Tell us Father, tell us.”

Rounding up the kids the priest began explaining the concepts of life and death and theology. After going on and on, one of the kids; the youngest; held the arm of his sister who was standing right next to him and jerked it. With big eyes his sister chided him “Pay attention”. The boy tried paying attention again but again his patience ran out. He again gave his sister’s arm a jerk, this time he pulled it so hard that his sister’s ear was right next to his mouth. “This Father doesn't know anything!”

Sensing that the kids were not able to understand what he was saying and were getting restless by the minute he said, “You know God really loved the cat a lot and he couldn't do without it, hence he took it back. Your cat is now with God and in the best of health and happiness”. Hearing this the kids went back home happy and delighted that now their cat was with God and doing well.

Moral of the story – Always know your audience and speak to them in a language they understand. When you go fishing you don’t put a piece of pizza as a bait but a worm. Why? Because a fish doesn't know what pizza is but surely knows what a worm is.