Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - God placed the Angels, wondrous creatures, at our side to accompany us to Heaven, to help us walk up the ladder of ever deeper communion with the Most Holy Trinity! They “ascend" and “descend” this ladder in order to lead mankind to infinite Love, to the boundless Ocean of love's origin where all is fullness of grace. Angels come from there and have no other occupation except to love God and make him loved by all men and women in order to lead them to Celebrate with Him.
The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, on the feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel e Raphael, explained to us that “the true nature" of Angels' is “to exist in Him and for Him”. Moreover the Pope told us that Angels “ Precisely because they are with God, they can also be very close to man. Indeed, God is closer to each one of us than we ourselves are. The Angels speak to man of what constitutes his true being, of what in his life is so often concealed and buried. They bring him back to himself, touching him on God's behalf.” (Benedict XVI, Homily 29 September 2007).
Angels, we might say with a human expression, draw nears to us “on tip toe”, they encourage us and wait patiently until we make up our minds to follow the Lord; they do not "intrude" in no way to they not interfere with our freedom for which they have total respect. If we wish to ignore their presence they will stand to one side, but if instead we ask for their help, they will assist us without delay because this is what they long to do: to help us to find Jesus more and more in ourselves and in others, to service Him in them: with all our being!
That Angels exist is revealed to us by God himself and is seen all through Sacred Scriptures. Since we were children Holy Mother Church taught us that lovely prayer to our Guardian Angel, in which every day we ask our heavenly companion to “enlighten us, guard us, guide us and keep us” recognising this as coming from “heavenly piety” of Divine Mercy! Saint Bernard, says with regard to protection of the Angels: “ ‘He will send his angels to watch over your every step’. How much reverence these words should stir in you, how much confidence should they instil! Reverence for the presence, devotion for the goodness, confidence for the protection. They are present then, and therefore they are present to you, with you and for you. They are present to protect you and to help you” (St. Bernard Abbot).
Why then is so little said about the Angels among the baptised who seem to rarely call for their help to overcome passions and so advance on the path to holiness? Why do we so often forget to mention them in our writings, our conferences, homilies and catechesis? Why is so little attention given to Angels?
The Saints with their lives teach us to love Angels. What marvellous pages have been written about them for example by the “Angelical Doctor”, Saint Thomas Aquinas! However, to increase our devotion to the Angels we need only open Sacred Scripture, especially the New Testament, to rediscover that precisely an Angel,Saint Gabriel, was entrusted with the mission to deliver the News which saved all mankind because the Blessed Virgin Mary gave her consent!
It is sweet to contemplate all this in the famous Angelus prayer: “Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae…”! We cannot begin to understand how much gratitude there was in the heart of the young Mary of Nazareth, when an Angel came to accompany her to discover the greatest of all Mysteries God's Love: the Incarnation of the Word!
Only the humble can understand Angels, God's most humble creatures. Angels, with at their head St Michael the Archangel - whose name means “who is like God?” -, remind us that without God we are nothing, that our only greatness is God and that God allows himself to be found by the humble ones, those who become as children, the only ones able to enter His Kingdom (cfr. Mt. 18, 3)!
Children are the Angels' greatest allies and from an early age they hould hear us speak about these celestial beings and learn to invoke them. Children are in fact the Angels' most docile collaborators. Their minds are sill pure and open to the mystery, sensitive to the “touch” of Angels; simple, not complicated like those of “grownups”, too ashamed to stay “children" at heart and so have lost their greatest treasure, their innocence. Angels wish to help us to win it back and this is why they help us to meet many “children”, in life, people who are little not in years but because of their humility, so we may be filled with new longing for God, who loves to reveal His Face, precisely through them! (Agenzia Fides 3/10/2007; righe 57, parole 846)
