THE ANGELUS

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A word on the publication of this little book and the unexpected success it has achieved. How did the idea for this book come about? Who brought about the unforeseen circumstances to which it owes its origin? Why is a work intended to reawaken the faith of the Catholic world in the sign of the cross appearing today, and not two or three centuries earlier? Why, until now, has no Pope thought to attach a spiritual favour to this most venerable, most ancient, and most customary formula of the religion? How, amidst so many concerns, did Pius IX deign to lend an ear to our feeble voice, and hasten to urge today’s Christians to make use of the sign of the cross as often as possible, in accordance with the example of their earliest ancestors? Why, in order to encourage them, did he wish to enrich its use with a doubly precious indulgence?

At first, we knew not how to answer all these questions. Today the light has dawned. Everything comes to pass in due time in the Church, for Providence never falters. Accustomed to using that which is not, to confound that which is, it proves no less admirable in small things than in great: Magnus in magnis, non parvus in minimis.

Now, the sign of the cross is the weapon of precision against the devil. Having been taught directly by the Apostles, the early Christians knew this. In constant struggle with Satan, in all the might of his reign and the cruelty of his rage, regulator of morals, ideas, the arts, theatres, festivals and laws, master of altars and thrones, defiling everything and turning everything into an instrument of corruption, they constantly resorted to the infallible means of dispelling the spellbinding charm and warding off the fiery arrows of the enemy. Hence the continual use of the sign of the cross, which became for them a constant exorcism: whichever way our conversation leads us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross.