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 bore 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.
