Remembering the Angels

In honour of Michaelmas last Sunday and the Holy Angels, Mr Coulombe presents us with a meditation on the angels and what they mean.

From Catholicism.org

By Charles Coulombe, KC*SS, STM

Once in a saintly passion
I cried with desperate grief,
“O Lord, my heart is black with guile,
Of sinners I am chief.”
Then stooped my guardian angel
And whispered from behind,
“Vanity, my little man,
You’re nothing of the kind.”
—James Thomson

Michaelmas, the feast of the Dedication of the Church of St. Michael in Rome, falls this year as on every other, on September 29. It affords us once more an opportunity to think about an order of creation intimately tied up with our own, if — usually — less tangible. Angelology is a fascinating if now somewhat neglected branch of Theology; given our fallen natures it is perhaps no surprise that its division of Demonology even now garners more attention. But we will leave the darker side alone for now, save that it began with the War in Heaven, in which St. Michael and the loyal Angels were triumphant.

Indeed, the word loyalty sums up St. Michael and his blessed colleagues entirely. They loyally adore God at all times; they loyally carry out His Will in regard to planets, nations, and men; and each of us has one loyally guarding us, as I write these words and you read them. They are tireless, having made their decision to be loyal back before our first parents appeared. “Moreover,” says Dom Gueranger “with regard to the work of salvation, the Guardian Angel has no fear of being left alone at his post; at his request, and at God’s command, the troops of his blessed companions, who fill Heaven and earth, are ever ready to lend him their aid. These noble spirits, acting under the eye of God, Whose love they desire to second by all possible means, have secret alliances between them, which sometimes induce between their clients, even on earth, unions the mystery whereof will be revealed in the light of eternity.” It may well be that when we suddenly like someone immensely we meet for the first time without any apparent reason, it is because our Guardian Angels are old comrades.

The Nine Choirs of Angels are a classification that comes to us from St. Dionysius the Areopagite, in his Divine Hierarchies. The Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones are closest to God, sending their time perpetually in worshipping and attending Him; the Dominions, Virtues, and Powers assist God in running the Universe; the Principalities, Archangels, and Angels (from which last choir our personal Guardians are drawn) deal with men. The term Archangel is also used for the “Seven Spirits Who Stand before the Throne of God.” Of these, Scripture and all Christian traditions unite in naming the first three Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, which the Church guarantees. A fourth, Uriel, is sometimes mentioned from apocryphal sources, while the remaining three get different names in different accounts — none of which the Church endorses unreservedly.

The Angles are pure spirits, which for St. Thomas Aquinas meant they were form without matter, while other scholastics spoke of “subtle matter.” Regardless, they move at the speed of thought, and are so individual that each was regarded by St. Thomas as a “separate species” from each other. They are not eternal, for they were created and so had a beginning. Their manner of time is called by the Schoolmen “Eviternity” — a beginning, and yet no end in an ongoing now. Even so, they are able to intervene within time.

In the 1969 Calendar, there are only two feasts of the Angels — this self-same Michaelmas, “The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels,” and the Feast of the Guardian Angels on October 2. In the traditional Calendar, St. Gabriel’s feast is March 24, and St. Raphael’s on October 24. Prior to 1960, the feast of the Apparition of St. Michael on May 8 commemorated his appearance at Monte Gargano, now a major shrine in his honour. Still Earlier, October 16 commemorated his apparition at Mont St. Michel in France, while the great Byzantine feast in his name is offered on November 8, anniversary of his appearance at Chonae in Asia Minor. October 1 is the feast of the Holy Guardian Angel of Spain, while October 10 is that of his colleague in Mexico.

But if the Angels have made their mark on the calendar, they done so as well on the land — especially in terms of shrines. There are a number of routes in Europe between shrines dedicated to a given Saint — James, Martin, Olaf, and so on. For centuries devotees of each have made their way between these holy places, praying for the intercession of the heavenly patron in question. But the path called “St. Michael’s Line” or the “Sword of St. Michael” is impossible to hike, although presumably easy enough as the crow — or the angel — flies. It is a straight line, extending over sea and land from Skellig Michael, Ireland; St Michael’s Mount, Cornwall; Mont Saint-Michel; the Sacra di San Michele; San Michele Arcangelo; the Sanctuary of Monte Sant’Angelo; the Panormitis Monastery of the Archangel Michael in Greece; at last to the Stella Maris Monastery on Mount Carmel.

There are many shrines that lay outside this line, however — such as on Glastonbury Tor in England, Aralar in Spain, the Michaelion near Istanbul (on the site of a huge church built by Constantine near his new capital), San Miguel del Milagro in Tlaxcala, Mexico, and the National shrine of St. Michael and the Archangels in Manila. In Rome itself, of course, there is the site of the church whose dedication caused the holy day, and the fortress upon whose roof St. Gregory the Great had a vision of the Great Archangel. Needless to say, there are a great many other shrines dedicated to all the angels collectively or to one of the named Archangels.

Alongside the Saints, the Angels are the denizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. Should we save our own souls, we shall enter into eviternity with them, and get to know them far better. Even as Our Lady is our Queen, so too is she Queen of Angels, and has long been venerated under that title. St. Francis, of course, rebuilt that chapel in her honour in Assisi, which would one day give its name to Los Angeles, California, founded in 1781 as “El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula.”

It is, of course, possible to enter into a closer fellowship with our future fellow citizens in this life. The St. Michael Prayer after Low Mass is an indication of just how highly we should value devotion to them. Observing all of their feasts as well as we can is one way to start; and since September offers Michaelmas — apart, of course, from observing such pleasantries as Michaelmas daisies and Michaelmas goose — we can explore the various devotions to him, as well as his patronages.

But do not let our exploration of Angelology stop there. There are many solid books available on the topic, from popular to scholarly. Beyond that, as we pray ever more to them, we shall find — as many Saints did — that the Holy Angels are invaluable in our own quest for sanctity. Our own Guardians and many others are constantly present, and never more than when we attend Mass or Adoration; they are the Body Guard of the Lord of Hosts — indeed, they are the Hosts to which the title refers.

As the year begins to wane, and this year — a presidential election year, as it happens — offers ever more in the way of bad news and fearfulness for the future, it is important to remember that we are never truly either lost or alone. Always — in our joys and sufferings, in our interactions with others — they are with us. One practice recommended by several authorities is that if one has a difficult meeting ahead, one should pray to the Guardian Angels of the other people involved for help. It seems eminently sensible.

I said early that we would not pay much attention to the forces of darkness in this article — and we haven’t. But they are all around us also, and at this particular hour in history seem well-nigh triumphant. Their angelic nature and strengths, despite disfigurement, remain intact. As St. Paul tells us, the devil goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He is the father of lies; he first tempts us with the supposed deliciousness of a given sin, and if we fall, is then our first accuser. Apart from his disobedience to God, what he has done to our race — the vast numbers of our brothers and sisters throughout the ages whom he and his minions have quite literally ruined — is unforgivable. But we have stronger allies in this fight than he and them in the angels and Saints, Our Lady, and God Himself. St. Paul tells us that at the end of time, “men will judge angels” — one day, we shall, if we persevere — at last have our revenge upon him and his. May this year’s Michaelmas be a foretaste of that happy day!