Angel of the Lord

“ You will observe that there run throughout the whole of the Old Testament notices of the occasional manifestation of a mysterious person who is named 'the Angel,' 'the Angel of the Lord.' For instance, in the great scene in the wilderness, where the bush burned and was not consumed, he who appeared is named 'the Angel of the Lord' ”

“ And I looked on high and I saw other angels whose countenance shone as the sun, their loins girded with golden girdles, having palms in their hands, and the sign of God, clothed with garments in which was written the name of the Son of God, filled moreover with all meekness and pity; and I asked the angels saying: Who are these, Lord, in so great beauty and pity? And the angel answered and said unto me: These are the angels of justice who are sent to lead up the souls of the just, in the hour of need, who believed that they had the Lord for their helper. ”

“ Holy Angel of the Lord, my Guardian, pray to God for me, a sinner!
I hymn you forever, most blessed and [115] good Angel, the Instructor and Guardian of my soul.
We bless the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Lord:
Be my protection and rampart on the day when all mankind will be tried and all deeds will be tested, both the good and the bad.
Now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Be the help and stillness of your servant, Ever-Virgin Theotokos, and never release me from your service.
ODE 9 Irmos: No man can see God, upon Whom the Angelic ranks dare not gaze. ”

“ ANGEL. Lord, how wonderful in depth and height, But most in man, how wonderful thou art! With what a love, what soft persuasive might, Victorious o'er the stubborn fleshly heart, Thy tale complete of saints thou dost provide, To fill the throne which angels lost through pride! {523} He lay a grovelling babe upon the ground, Polluted in the blood of his first sire, With his whole essence shattered and unsound, And, coiled around his heart, a demon dire, Which was not of his nature, but had skill To bind and form his opening mind to ill. ”

“ It is generally supposed that the 'Angel of the Lord' here is to be taken collectively, and that the meaning is—the 'bright-harnessed' hosts of these divine messengers are as an army of protectors round them who fear God. ”

“ Consider 2dly, how the Angel, in his salutation, styles the Blessed Virgin full of grace; to signify the supereminent degree of divine grace, to which God elevated her soul, to prepare her to be the mother of his Son. For she was full of all that habitual grace, which justifies and sanctifies the soul; full of faith and hope: full of divine charity, in both its branches; ever loving God with her whole heart, with her whole soul, with all her mind, and with all her strength, and loving her neighbour as herself ”

“ Great awe and veneration were experienced by both father and son when they discovered that an Angel of the Most High had appeared to them in the form of a man. “Being seized with fear they fell upon their faces on the ground.” How much more reverence ought we to feel each time we are in the presence of the most holy Sacrament, in which our Lord is really and personally present with His Divinity and sacred Humanity. ”

“ Any one of these mysteries furnishes sufficient material to occupy the mind of man for hours. These mysteries contain the whole history of the Redemption. The prayers and meditations of the Rosary satisfy the minds of the humblest, while they are sufficient to occupy the attention of the most exalted and most cultivated. The Angelus is a beautiful prayer, said morning, noon, and night. In Catholic countries the bell is rung, when all cease their occupations, kneel, and recite: "The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary, and she conceived by the Holy Ghost"—a Hail Mary. ”

“ When an angel is appointed to perform a duty, to go to the earth to preach the Gospel, or to do anything for the advancement of his Fathers kingdom in any part of the great domain of heaven, the vision of that angel is opened to see and understand the magnitude of the work that is expected of him to perform, and the grand results which will grow out of it. That is the reason why the angels are of one heart and of one mind, in their faithfulness and obedience to the requirements of their Father and God. ”

“ The question naturally arises, how the angel who possesses these high predicates stands related to angels who elsewhere appear not representing the whole self- manifestation of God to his people, but discharging isolated commissions. The Biblical data for the solution of this question are very scanty. An essential distinction between the " angel of the Lord," who speaks in all things with full divine authority, and subordinate angels, is sought mainly in Gen. ”

“ All we are told about angels is very beautiful. When the Lord Jesus was born, you know it was an angel who brought to the shepherds of Bethlehem, as they watched their flocks, the "good tidings of great joy," that to them was born a Saviour, Christ the Lord. ”

“ O! see, my soul, with what sentiments of devotion thou oughtest to join with the Angel, and with the blessed St. Elizabeth, and with the whole Church of God, in this solemn address to the Virgin Lady: " blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb," Luke i, 24.
Conclude ever to keep up in thy soul a grateful remembrance of all the great things, that God has done for the Blessed Virgin, and for us all, in the Incarnation of his Son, by a frequent and devout repetition of the Angelical salutation ”

“ ANGELS TURN THEIR FACES CONSTANTLY TO THE LORD AS A SUN, AND THUS HAVE THE SOUTH TO THE RIGHT, THE NORTH TO THE LEFT, AND THE WEST BEHIND THEM. All that is here said of angels, and of their turning to the Lord as a sun, is to be understood also of man, as regards his spirit. For man in respect to his mind is a spirit, and if he be in love and wisdom, is an angel; consequently, after death, when he has put off his externals, which he had derived from the natural world, he becomes a spirit or an angel. ”

“ And there followed another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”
Angel is from the Greek anggelos, and means agent or messenger. “Heaven” does not refer to the glory world above, but to the work of God and heaven here upon earth. This angel is a messenger or servant in the work of the Lord. He has the everlasting gospel to preach to the people. The burden of his ministry is, “Fear God, and give glory to him ”

“ Thus reception of love and wisdom in equal measure is the very angelic state, and therefore an angel is an angel of heaven according to the union in him of love and wisdom. It is the same with the man of the church, when love and wisdom, that is, charity and faith, make one in him.
103. THE SUN OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD APPEARS AT A MIDDLE ALTITUDE, FAR OFF FROM THE ANGELS, LIKE THE SUN OF THE NATURAL WORLD FROM MEN. Most people take with them out of the world an idea of God, as being above the head, on high, and an idea of the Lord, as living in heaven among the angels. ”

“ Florence, and Rome; but I fancy that pictures, like books, are what we choose to make them, and that the more exquisite the art by which vice is divested of its grossness, but not of its subtle poisons,--like the New Héloïse of Rousseau or the Wilhelm Meister of Goethe,--the more fatally will it lead astray by the insidious entrance of an evil spirit in the guise of an angel of light. Art, like literature, is neither good nor evil abstractly, but may become a savor of death unto death, as well as of life unto life. ”

“ But her nature cannot be half developed, her capacities cannot be known, even to herself, until she has learned to mingle with man in the free interchange of those sentiments which keep the soul alive, and which stimulate the noblest powers. Then only does she realize her aesthetic mission. Then only can she rise in the dignity of a guardian angel, an educator of the heart, a dispenser of the blessings by which she would atone for the evil originally brought upon mankind. ”

“ PARTICULARLY THE ANGEL GUARDIAN.
The holy angels are to be honoured with a particular devotion, on account of the superior dignity of the angelic nature, as well as the peculiar love which they bear to us, and the benefits they confer on us. For though in essence they are spirits, the noblest of all creatures, denizens of the court of God, and always beholding the face of the Father who is in heaven, yet, as St. Bernard says, this does not deprive us of their affectionate ministry; for while they inhabit the heavens, they do not despise the earth. ”

“ Again, we see how incoherent is the whole section which contains the alleged prayer to angels: "Thou wast yesterday under a demon, to-day thou art under an angel: the angels minister to thy salvation; they are granted for the ministry of the Son of God, &c. All things are full of angels. ”

“ Teach me ever to love this bright angel so dear to Thee, who, whilst he is minding me on earth, still beholds Thy face in heaven. Grant to me that I may enjoy his powerful protection all my life long, and then rejoice in his society together with all Thy holy angels for ever and ever, through Jesus Christ, &c.
Dear Angel, whom God has given me, bless Him, and teach me to love and bless Him too. I love thee, and I desire to love thee much more, because thou art so dear to God, and He has made me so dear to thee.
Guard and keep me from sin and danger, for Jesus' sake. ”

“ ANGELS OF THE SACRED STAIR. Father, whose goodness none can know, but they Who see thee face to face, By man hath come the infinite display Of thine all-loving grace; But fallen man—the creature of a day— Skills not that love to trace. It needs, to tell the triumph thou hast wrought, An angel's deathless fire, an angel's reach of thought. It needs that very angel, who with awe Amid the garden shade, The great Creator in his sickness saw, Soothed by a creature's aid, And agonized, as victim of the law Which he himself had made ”

“ But when the hour has come which the Father has kept in His own power, then in one form or another His life-bringing angel appears to such a soul. Yet how little do we know about what part the angel had in the Savior's resurrection! ”

“ Turn aside with him, O youth, if thou standest upon his wandering way. This frightful dream will in future be thy judge; but if thou shouldst one day call out, full of grief, "Come again, O beautiful youth!" so shall it never return again.
THE DEATH OF AN ANGEL.
The tenderest and kindest angel, the Angel of the last hour, whom we harshly call Death, is sent to us, that he may mildly and gently pluck away the sinking heart of man from life, and bear it unhurt in his warm hands out of the cold breast into high, warming Eden. ”

“ But it is asked, If men are called gods to whom the word of the Lord came, are the Angels to be called gods, when the greatest reward which is promised to just and holy men is the being equal to Angels? ”

“ A little while longer, and the living, breathing, speaking guardian angel was all his own—blessing his heart and house, filling his very soul with the purest love, the most profound gratitude to God, by whose infinite mercy he was thus almost miraculously saved. ”

“ As we raise our eyes to the “angel” bosses of the groining and to the springers of the eastern bay we can say, “Therefore with the angels and archangels and all the company of Heaven we laud and magnify Thy glorious Name,” “To Thee all angels cry aloud,” for the Redeemer looks down upon us surrounded by the angels, and beneath the springer canopies there stand the figures of the archangels, “the seven spirits that are ever before the throne of God,” and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom was given by the Early Church the sweet title of the Queen of the Angels, “Regina Angelorum.” ”

“ Angels He calls ye: be your strife
To lead on earth an Angel’s life.
Think not of rest; though dreams be sweet,
Start up, and ply your heavenward feet.
Is not God’s oath upon your head,
Ne’er to sink back on slothful bed,
Never again your loans untie,
Nor let your torches waste and die,
Till, when the shadows thickest fall,
Ye hear your Master’s midnight call?
Third Sunday in Advent.
What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? . . . But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. St. Matthew xi. 7, 9. ”

“ ANGEL. The tumultuous noise of the nations, Their rejoicings and lamentations, The pleadings of their prayer, The groans of their despair, The cry of their imprecations, Their wrath, their love, their hate!
PROPHET. Surely the world doth wait The coming of its Redeemer!
ANGEL. Awake from thy sleep, O dreamer? The hour is near, though late; Awake! write the vision sublime, The vision, that is for a time, Though it tarry, wait; it is nigh; In the end it will speak and not lie. ”

“ To fall upon one's knees before the relics of a saint, and beg his prayers, as if he could see and hear? To implore the Blessed Virgin to succor and defend, as if she were not a creature, but omnipotent and divine? To reverence the priest as a being immaculate, an angel with hidden wings walking upon earth, unto whose feet you must kneel, and unveil, as unto God, all the thoughts and interests of your heart? ”

“ I must ring the bell for my pupils. [He sees the Angel.] What are you? Who are you? I think I saw some that were like you in my dreams when I was a child—that bright thing, that dress that is the colour of embers! But I have done with dreams, I have done with dreams.
Angel. I am the Angel of the Most High God.
Wise M. Why have you come to me?
Angel. I have brought you a message.
Wise M. What message have you got for me?
Angel. You will die within the hour. You will die when the last grains have fallen in this glass. [She turns the hour-glass.] ”