The prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel is not a sweet prayer. It needs to be read with PASSION! “Defend us against the wickedness and snares of the Devil! May God RUBUKE him! (we humble pray) and do thou, Oh! Prince of the heavenly hosts, THRUST into hell . . .”We don’t take angels nearly seriously enough. They get relegated to clouds with harps or gently helping
two German kids across a rickety bridge. For Catholics belief in angels is an article of faith. Feast days are celebrated in their honor. Tomorrow will be the feast of the archangels, and October 2nd is the feast of guardian angels. They are not cute, benign little creatures that simply like to sit on top of our Christmas trees or at the bottom of ornate, gilded frames. They are powerful beings that effect the created order; a cosmological principle, a dynamic and mysterious factor in reality.Interestingly, the word “angel” does not denote who they are, but what they do. They are spirits. Angel comes from the Greek word angelos meaning messenger. They are God’s
messengers to us. Satan and his cohorts were created spirits that acted as God’s messengers too, but were in essence “fired” (pun intended) and so you find we rarely refer to Lucifer as an angel except to say that he is a fallen angel.In the New Testament angels are guardians, protectors, members of the Divine Court, healers, worshipers, agents of destruction, companions of Christ, and witnesses to the events of salvation. They are our aids and friends and act as messengers of God. Scriptures recognize nine groups or (as St. Ambrose began to refer to them) choirs of angels with an established hierarchy
. We know that these ranks exit but not what necessarily makes the demarcations.Their primary purpose is to be present to our Lord and minister to Him, regulate the order of the world and be His messengers to man in His plan of salvation. To that end they occasionally appear to humans and when they do (and once again we don’t know why) they appear as young androgynous boys.
Lastly, Scriptures testify that there are angels assigned to assists us, what we call Guardian Angels. They are intimately tied to our lives and it is not a bad idea to ask for their intercession, especially your guardian angels and to remember to be grateful for their service.
ANGEL QUIZ:
1. Can you name the nine choirs of angels?
2. From which Choir is St. Michael?
3. Form which choir do guardian angels come?
4. What does the name Lucifer mean?
5. Do angles have free will?
ANSWERS TOMORROW
