The Angelus: Recalling the Incarnation Daily

Holly Dodd shares how praying the Angelus daily can help us grow in the desire to say “yes” to God’s will for our lives. 

God Became Man  

The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary, and she conceived of the Holy Spirit.  

Picture it. Mary, a simple and faithful Jewish girl, was going about her business when an angel showed up and asked her to carry God’s own son in her womb. She certainly had faith and hope that a Messiah would be coming to her people soon, but not like this! This was quite unexpected; it must have been awe inspiring and terribly frightening. 

Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to Thy will.  

She said yes. She said, here I am God. Yes I will do this thing that you ask of me. Yes, I will trust you even though this feels pretty huge and I don’t know what will happen and it’s somewhat likely I will be stoned for adultery, but yes, okay, sure. Yes, I trust in Your will.   

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.   

God became human. God gave Himself to humanity and lived as one of us on earth.   

The Church Bells Ring to Remind us to Pray  

The Angelus is a simple way to bring these remarkable events to mind throughout the day, every day, interrupting our busyness with a simple recollection of the Incarnation.  

The Angelus, Latin for angel, dates back to at least 11th-century Italy, where monks were known to begin evening prayer with praying the Hail Mary, recalling Mary’s fiat and God’s incarnation. In the 1300s, Pope John XXII recommended all Catholics take time to recall these events and pray three Hail Marys in the evening; and in time it evolved into a longer string of prayers, beginning with antiphons taken from the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel to precede each recitation of the Hail Mary.

As early as the 1400s, churches began triple-ringing the bells, particularly at noon, to remind people to stop and pray. Some churches still triple ring the noon bells and may also begin noon Mass with the Angelus. Today the Angelus is often prayed three times a day: noon, 6 AM (or sometimes 9 AM) and 6 PM, in the Hebrew tradition of praying evening, morning and noon (Psalm 55:17). It can be prayed alone or with others, and it is relatively simple to memorize with just a few weeks of recitation. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has the full text of the prayer available.

The Power of Recalling the Incarnation Daily  

Most of us don’t live in a world where we can count on hearing the Angelus bells ringing out from the church steeple at noon to remind us to stop and pray, but we do live in a world full of digital technology. I have a church bells alarm tone on my phone that chimes at 9 AM, noon, and 6 PM. When those bells chime, my family and I try to stop what we are doing and pray the Angelus.

Personally, I close my eyes (if I’m not driving!)  to better picture the scene, to feel the surprise Mary must have felt when Gabriel addressed her, “full of grace.” I imagine how it must have felt to say YES to Gabriel, YES to God, not knowing where that yes would leave. And I delight in recalling that the Word was made flesh, that GOD was made human and walked this earth with us.   

I’ve only been praying the Angelus for a few years, and I don’t always catch all three times in a day. I’m working on the boldness to always stop what I am doing to pray, even if I am having a conversation with someone who isn’t Catholic, or on a phone call, or in the checkout line at the grocery store. I’m working on building the courage to invite others to pray with me when I stop to pray in a group of people. It’s a work in progress. 

Regardless of how many times I pray the Angelus each day, every time I do, it serves to draw to mind the Incarnation and Mary’s yes. I have found that my awe in this imagery never gets old, and recalling it daily trickles into the rest of my life. Taking time to stop and remember Mary’s obedience and God’s gift of humanity helps me to be obedient to God’s will for me and helps me recognize God’s gifts throughout the day.   

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Copyright 2025 Holly Dodd
Images: Jean-François Millet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Philippe de Champaigne, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons