One change in our language that started somewhere in the Early Modern period (roughly from Shakespeare to the end of the eighteenth century) was the progressive tense formed with verb 'to be' plus the present participle. An example is "I am running". However the passive progressive was still seen as improper; they would favour "while grace is saying" to "while grace is being said". A version of this older usage is preserved in our phrase: "what's cooking?" (rather than "what is being cooked").
A great excerpt from a private letter from 1795 (quoted in my textbook) illustrates in vivid language both this usage and the disgust for it:
[The passive progressive is] like a fellow whose uttermost grinder is being torn out by the roots by a mutton-fisted barber.(italics to show the usage).
I shall conclude by saying: may you never be like that unfortunate fellow but may you continue successfully to use the passive progressive.
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