Archbishop Óscar A. Romero told his brother Tiberio
that the secret to being happy in life was to pray the “Angelus.” Tiberio recalled that his brother told him
that he should make praying three Hail Mary’s in the morning and three again in
the evening the axis around which to ground his day. Tiberio also attested to the efficacy of the
practice, saying that he has lived to see old age and developed a strong Marian
devotion, thanks to the wise spiritual counsel he received from his brother. Archbishop Romero gave the same advice he
gave his own brother to all the faithful on May 7, 1978, when he announced that
he was instituting the recitation of the “Angelus” in the archdiocese of San
Salvador.
“With joy I want to
announce that beginning this Sunday,” Archbishop Romero said, “at twelve noon we will pray the Angelus on
our radio program.” Archbishop
Romero would be glad to hear that the advice he gave his brother Tiberio led to
his developing a Marian devotion because, Romero told the faithful, “true Catholics ought to be characterized by
this devotion to the Mother of the Church.”
We can think of three reasons Romero was devoted to the
Angelus. The first is its status as an authentic
expression of the sensus fidei: it
has a natural internal logic about it that suggests itself. In fact, the prayer arose just as Archbishop
Romero prescribed it to his brother—as three Hail Mary’s, unadorned and unembellished,
liturgically or theologically. This
practice is first recorded in monasteries during the 11th Century—the monks
would pray three Hail Mary’s during the evening bell. The three Hail Mary’s invoke the Three
Persons of the Trinity, and immediately focus our thoughts, as do all Marian
devotions, properly on God. Later, the
practice became more widespread, and the custom arose of saying the Angelus in
the morning, at noon, and in the evening—also, helping to naturally break up
the day. One can see the practicality of
doing this before the advent of clocks and watches.
Jean-François Millet’s famous painting (shown) depicts peasants praying the
Angelus out on a field. The Angelus as a
staple of popular piety, of the simple wisdom of the people of God, and as a
perennial spiritual practice in the history of Christianity, would have been
enormously appealing to Archbishop Romero.
The second reason Archbishop Romero may have been drawn
to the Angelus is his personal Marian devotion.
In this respect, it seems very providential that Archbishop Romero was
killed on March 24, 1980, the eve of the Feast of the Annunciation—the event
that the Angelus celebrates and memorializes.
Of course, he had no way of knowing this during his life time—but it is
fitting. At the other end of his life
cycle, Óscar Romero was born on August 15, 1917—the Feast of the Assumption of
the Virgin. He was born in a province of
El Salvador called San Miguel, where an image of Our Lady Queen of Peace was
fervently venerated. In 1921, when
Romero was only 4 years old, the image was granted canonical coronation by Pope
Benedict XV. The ceremony was presided
by Bishop Juan Antonio Dueñas, the man who later discovered
Romero and sent him to the seminary.
When Fr. Romero returned to San Miguel as an ordained priest in the
1940s, he was put in charge of caring for the image of Our Lady. In 1953, Pope Pius XII proclaimed her the
Co-Patroness of El Salvador. The
proclamation was confirmed and expanded by Pope Paul VI in 1966. Romero remained devoted to Our Lady for the
rest of his life.
Finally, Archbishop Romero himself tells us the third
reason for his devotion to the Angelus, saying that the faithful should pray
the Angelus so that, “united with the
Holy Father who prays the Angelus every Sunday in Rome at noon, we might lift
up our voices and greet the Virgin as we pray for the many needs of the Church.” Romero picked up Vatican Radio’s signal on his
short-wave radio, and listened to the Pope’s recitation of the Angelus every
Sunday. Archbishop Romero would often
work the Pope’s comments into his own Sunday sermons. “My
sisters and brothers, the greatest glory of a pastor is to live in communion
with the Pope,” Archbishop Romero declared. “For me,” he added, “this
communion with the Pope is the secret of the truth and gives efficacy to my
preaching.” Adding the Angelus to
his spiritual repertoire was a very visible way for Archbishop Romero to put
himself in tune with the Pontiff, to indicate his intention to follow the Pope’s
lead with respect to his magisterium, and to emulate the Holy Father in his
spiritual practices.
The reasons for Archbishop
Romero’s interest in the Angelus are relevant to us, also. As a simple prayer that can be recited anywhere,
the Angelus is the devotion par
excellence for a “poor Church for the poor,” that helps us focus on the
spirit of poverty of the Beatitudes. As
a Marian devotion, the Angelus helps us see in Mary’s “yes” to God the openness to the divine
will that leads us to a stronger link to our own faith. Finally, by mirroring the prayers of the Roman
Pontiff, the Angelus acts as our badge of loyalty to the Church and to the
mission we are called to take up together.
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