Unlisted, unexplained prayers

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Le_Cracquere

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Today at the cathedral, the Ash Wednesday service kicked off with a lengthy bunch of prayers from the procession at the front door. No one seemed fazed, and everyone joined in at dictated intervals, seemingly by heart … but the prayers weren’t listed anywhere in the missal that I could find, or in any handout. I looked wildly around, but everyone seemed to have been expecting it. Parts of it sounded like the Hail Mary, but other parts were completely unfamiliar. The exact same thing happened at the Immaculate Conception service, and on All Saints’ Day: a bunch of undocumented opening prayers that everyone seems to know by heart, but which leave newcomers (or non-cradle Catholics) 100% flat-footed.

Does anyone know if this is standard operating procedure for non-Sunday holidays? And if so, how on Earth can anyone learn to catch up?
 
Depending on the time of day perhaps it was the Angelus:

https://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/prayers/angelus.htm

The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary:
And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of
our death. Amen.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy word.

Hail Mary . . .

And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary . . .

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray:

Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.

Amen.
 
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Yes. Another vote for the Angelus. Like Suscipe mentioned, even though it’s traditionally prayed at 6 am/noon/6 pm, you’re most likely to run into it right before a lunchtime daily Mass. So if there’s normally 20 people for a noon Mass, but then 500 people for a Holy Day of Obligation/Important Day Like Ash Wednesday, there’s a good chance that several of those 500 people are a bit lost. 🙂

I struggle with it a bit, too, but mostly because I memorized a different version than the one I usually run into recited in public. The beginning part is the same, but the bit that goes after the “Let us Pray” part was different. The one I memorized went like this:
The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
Response: And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
(Hail Mary)

Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
Response: May it be done unto me according to your word.
(Hail Mary)

And the Word was made flesh.
Response: And dwelt among us.
(Hail Mary)

Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.
Response: That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray: O Lord, it was through the message of an angel that we learned of the Incarnation of your Son, Christ. Pour your grace into our hearts, that by his Passion and cross we may be brought to the glory of his Resurrection. Through the same Christ, our Lord. Amen.
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But you’re more likely to encounter Suscipe’s version in the wild, so that’s a better one to memorize. 🙂 But I’m just pointing it out to explain that even amongst people in the Secret Angelus-Praying Club, there’s more than one way to recite it. 🙂
 
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