Angelus Domini: Echo of Bygone Years

Angelus in Balete

Secularization. That's one of the main reasons why less and less people in Balete notice the bell tolling at dusk. The young ones seem unaware of that practice. I remember well how we abruptly ceased from going to the hook or dribbling the ball when suddenly, Kulas, the sacristan, hidden in his comfort zone at the belfry, started tolling the bells to mark the end of the day. I remember how each of us impatiently prayed that he hurriedly go for the finale, (Common, show off your campanology, Kulas!), so that we could continue to play. Personally, Angelus (read, the silence in between the tolling) reminded me of my other undone obligations (house chores) that each clang sounded like "patay, owa pat ang kasag-ob", "patay, owa ko pat a hisaburi ro manok" (what a pity that I failed to fetch water...what a pity that I failed to feed the chicken)....Then as Kulas went off pealing those bells, my mind would rush home even as my body stood immobile and expect for the twigs and the one hour forced meditation before the altar. Knelling in front of the image of the Sacred Heart, my mind wandered off back to the children still playing "games" and "bong" in the plaza. Intermittently, silhouette of men in single file amidst the reddening sky flashed into my mental DVD. They seemed humming some haunting sighs as they carried their heaves into the setting sun.

Angelus in Guadalupe, Makati

Signs of secularism is best manifested in Guadalupe though. Judy, the hunchbacked sacristan had refrained from going up to the steeple (for there was none) and in calling the faithful to Angelus he would just play a recorded music on a public address of some distant bells tolling from some far-off monastery. Even then, only a handful laymen paused in silence as most noticed only the building up of traffic along the historic EDSA. Yet the men of the robes sat quietly on the pews. At a signal, they rose up for the vespers and in a melancholic chant addressed their hidden God: The Lord's revelation to my master:Sit on my right...(Ps. 109 [110])

Angelus at the Trappist Monastery in Guimaras

In Guimaras, the Trappists hear the signs in the growing neighborhood of what used to be an isolated monastery surrounded only by thickets of trees and shrubs. The tolling of bells at Angelus is now competing with the sound boxes of some merchants in the developing San Miguel community. But the hooded monks never complained. Instead, in the silence of their hearts, they sung: "O blest Creator of the light/who mak'st the day with radiant bright...Night comes with all its darkling fears/Regard thy people's prayers and tears..."

Yet Asin intimated what a good example of Filipino custom this Angelus was. Listening to its single, Orasyon, one is brought back into bygone years when we led simple, honest and quiet lives in the rural Philippines of our lolos and lolas. Above, Jean-Francois Millet managed to depict it in his famous ouvre of the same title.

(The photo of Jean-Francois Millet's The Angelus is taken from http://www.fisheaters.com/angelus.html Below it is the facade of Our Lady of the Philippines Abbey taken sometime in March 2008 when I was having my two-day retreat there)

See the complete works of Jean-Francois Millet at http://www.jeanmillet.org/