Pondering the Angelus with Art: this Week's Annunciation Scene

With the return to Ordinary Time, we return to praying the Angelus and not the Eastertide "Regina Coeli" three times a day (morning/noon/evening), and The Angelus Project returns to featuring a weekly Annunciation.

This week's image, from the Walters Museum of Art, was carved in alabaster somewhere in the region of Nottinham, England, where there seems to have been a regular trade in alabaster images. While most of the carvings we see today are a sedate natural color, they were usually painted, and remnants of color remain. This piece had Gabriel's words of greeting painted on the scroll. A wonderful detail is the dove (representing the Holy Spirit) rushing toward Mary from the mouth of the Heavenly Father. It is the Father's Word who will take flesh in Mary through the overshadowing of that divine Spirit.

Pondering the Regina Coeli with song

This week's musical setting of the Regina Coeli is a contemporary version for soloist and choir by Slovak composer Vladimír Godár. While the singing has a very modern quality, the music itself is a remarkable synthesis of forms, with some qualities echoing the Renaissance, and others sounding distinctively of folk music or contemporary classical sounds:

When Ordinary Time resumes following Pentecost, The Angelus Project will again feature a weekly depiction of the Annunication to accompany your praying and promotion of the Angelus.

Pondering the Regina Coeli with song

Moving forward a few centuries from last week, this week's musical setting of the Regina Coeli is by contemporary Italian liturgical composer Father Marco Frisina. He elaborates beautifully on the traditional and familiar chant lines: can you hear it?

Pondering the Regina Coeli with song

This week's musical setting of the Regina Coeli is by German composer Gregor Aichinger (1565-1628).