So far the Catechism of Perseverance, which we have followed almost verbatim. "He has given His angels charge over thee, and in their hands shall they bear thee up, lest, perhaps, thou hurt thy foot against a stone." These words of the royal prophet and sweet singer of Israel, although pointing especially to our Saviour, as is seen by Satan's quotation after the temptation, yet are equally applicable to each one of us. Our Saviour Himself says of the little ones that “their angels do behold the Face of my Father who is in Heaven.” The love which these guardians bear us is so ardent that the prophet asks: "Who makest thy ministers a burning fire?" According to St. Augustine their love is beyond all conception; it is fanned into a flame by the consideration of God, of man, and of themselves. It is the perfection of charity. They are so ravished by the ineffable dignity, beauty and loveliness of the Sacred Humanity that, according to St. Peter (1 : 12), the more they gaze upon it the more they love it, the more they would like to love it, the more they consecrate themselves to it, the more perfect still they would wish to make their holocaust, "on whom the angels desire to look." And again," when He bringeth in the first begotten into the world, He saith: "And let all the angels of God adore Him?" St. Augustine calls them the "enlighteners of our souls, the protection of our bodies, the warden of our goods." In Jacob's blessing upon his grandsons, "the angel that delivereth me from all evils, bless these boys," we have authority for begging their blessing upon our avocations and ourselves. And in the angel who walked in the fiery furnace with the three children we see how they sympathize with us in our afflictions. Also in Isaias: "Behold they that see shall cry without, the angel of peace shall weep bitterly." But also-O blessed and most sweet comforting! there is joy among the angels of heaven over one sinner who repenteth more than over ninety-nine just." How triumphantly do Peter's words sound, after his liberation : "Now I know in very deed that the Lord hath sent His angel and delivered me out of the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jews." And Judith proclaimed, with the same triumphant spirit, to the people how she had trusted to her guardian angel: "As the Lord liveth, His angel hath been my keeper both going hence and abiding there and returning from thence, hither." "Our weakness," adds St. Hilary, "could not resist the malice of the evil spirits without the assistance of our guardian angels." "God aiding," says St. Cyril, "we have nothing to fear from the powers of darkness, for it is written: the angel of the Lord will encamp round those who fear Him and will deliver them." "Our guardian angels," to quote Origen again, “offer our prayers to God through Jesus Christ, and they also pray for him who is confided to them." "It is certain," says St. Hilary, “that the angels preside at the prayers of the faithful." And St. Augustine once more: "The angels not only bring us the favors of God, but they also offer Him our prayers." Not that God is ignorant of them, but the more easily to obtain for us the gifts of His mercy and the blessings of His grace." St. John saw, as he tells us in the Apocalypse, "another angel came and stood before the altar having a golden censer, and there was given him much incense, that he should offer the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar, which is before the throne of God, and the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God, from the hand of the angel. But above all, in his gracious, tender patience, his pity and compassion, as type of angelic compassion, stands forth the starcrowned Raphael. This dispensation is not the least among the adorable rulings of God's mercy to men. These friends of ours, closer and more intimate than any mortal companion can be, never leave our side. Some favored few among us, of exceptional holiness have been permitted, either to see their guardian in material form, to realize his guiding by sensible touch, or to receive his advice through their sense of hearing. The fathers do not agree as to the extent of the protection of the angels to all men. Some think that each human being in existence has a guardian who never leaves him; others that only the just are so favored and only for the time that they persevere in justice. Sin seems to move them to a distance. St. Basil says: "The angels are always near each faithful soul, unless they are banished by evil actions." He says also that the guardian angels assist those more especially who give themselves to fasting. St. Thomas says that no sinner is entirely abandoned by his guardian angel. Adversaries of the doctrine of the invocation of saints and angels seize upon the use of the word worship, as implying an adoration as to God. In this they do not distinguish between worship and worship; the Church does so, very strongly. Supreme homage or worship has, in the language of the schools been denominated Latria. There is a lower honor or worship which we are even commanded in the Decalogue to give to superiors and rulers, religious and civil. How much more is such honor owing to angels and saints, whom God is pleased to honor as His friends? 1 From the Greek Aarpeia,-the worship due to God only;-from Aarprów, to serve, to worship. (See Rock's "Hierurgia," p. 227.) In the Western Church there was no such difficulty of misinterpretation of the honor paid as there was in the East. Here the devotion has grown with the centuries. The mention of the Angels is frequent in the Psalter, of which the canonical office consists. There is a commemoration of them in the Preface and in the Canon of the Mass and so incorporated was the reverence of them into the daily prayers of the people and the festivities of the Church, that no special day was assigned in which to honor them for some years. Afterwards the 2d of October was made the Feast of the Guardian Angels, setting this special phalanx of the heavenly army aside from the others. But as the Church, gathering the months into her hands, transforms them into spiritual blossoms and with them weaves an unfading wreath to lay at the Tabernacle door, so the month of October is the flower of the angels and during its thirty-one days, they are kept particularly in the minds and hearts of her children. "White winged angels meet the child And they follow it through all the years allotted to it upon this terrestrial globe; nor does the bright spirit leave its charge until the soul, having been withdrawn from its earthly tenement, receives its sentence, whether for weal or woe. This teaching regarding the angels is only one of the many charms with which our Mother would charm her children. In fact, the Catholic lives in an ideal world of which those outside the Fold have small conception, a world of ideals and symbols— which elevates, consoles and purifies—a world within this one of human wants and weaknesses, yet above and beyond it and by means of which the Mighty Mother draws her little ones as by silken cords up to the tender Heart of her heavenly Bridegroom. "Thou art all beautiful, O my Beloved, and there is no spot in thee!" Such is the Church, the Pillar and Ground of the Faith. III. The first poet to commemorate these ethereal and intangible creations was the Shepherd-king of Israel. But at the mention of them in connection with the literature belonging to them, one naturally turns to Milton and his immortal epic. To be sure, he gives us angels as grim, stern and solemn as himself and his poem; here and there, however, will break forth a picture of airy grace and beauty which astonishes. He evidently shared St. Thomas' idea regarding the action of the angels in the creation; as in the tenth book of "Paradise Lost:" VOL. XIII.-43 Satan having made his first journey round the earth "seeking whom he might devour," disguises himself as an angel of light in order to effect an entrance into the earthly paradise. Thus he deceives the archangel Uriel, whom he finds on guard, since "neither man nor angel can discern hypocrisy, the only evil that walks invisible, except to God alone," who points down to the spot occupied by Eden, to which Satan at once betakes himself. Uriel, having discovered his mistake, descends to warn Gabriel, who, when Uzziel assumes his guard, sends Ithuriel and Zephon to investigate the condition of the garden. They find the tempter "squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve," and the former drives him forth by a touch of his bright spear. Raphael is sent to warn Adam, and he is thus described: "Six wings he wore to shade His lineaments divine; the pair that clad Each shoulder broad came mantling o'er his breast With regal ornament; the middle pair Girt like a starry zone his waist, and round Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold, And colors dipped in heaven; the third, his feet All too soon the idyllic days of innocence are ended. Driven from their home by the very spirits, led by the glorious Michael, who had so lately been their playmates-we see the man and woman pass through the gates of Paradise while "The world was all before them where to choose." And the flaming sword revolved above Ithuriel and his cherubim keeping watch and ward over the desecrated portals. Down through the ages the world echoes with exquisite sensitiveness to the light tread of angel footsteps; all the celestial music which reaches the poor old earth in these her days of decadence is from the passing of the hosts; their pearly wings pulsing upon the air, quicken it with memories of the lost delights of Eden; the glory shining from their radiant faces gives greater brilliance to the sun, throws a reflection even upon the black and lowering, storm-mantled sky. But in the early days, while God was leading His chosen people to their inheritance, these heavenly visitants were allowed to demonstrate themselves to the weak human eye. For that mar vellous dispensation was one of closest intercourse between the Creator and the creature, and the Almighty, since His grandeur was such that no mortal could look upon it and live, needed. heralds and messengers to convey His mandates and his mercies. Their passings, as recorded in Sacred Scriptures, have been chronicled, from the vision of surpassing beauty which, leaning from the dazzling sky, greeted the despairing eyes of Hagar and brought her hearts-ease, to the radiant form which illumined the prison of St. Peter and wrought his release. As has been said above, the first of poets to commemorate the angels was the Shepherd-King. In psalm 102, he sings: "Bless the Lord, all ye His angels, you that are mighty in strength and execute His word, hearken to the voice of His orders. “Bless the Lord, all ye His hosts; you ministers of His that do His will." Again, in the 137th Psalm, he calls upon the angels to witness his worship of a merciful God: "I will praise Thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; for Thou hast heard the words of my mouth. "I will sing praise to Thee in the sight of the angels." One of the old English poets, Sandys, has made a pleasing versification of the 148th Psalm: "You who dwell above the skies Free from human miseries, You whom highest heaven embowers, Him your heavenly armies praise!" As to the Rabbinical legends of the realms of the air, there is none more exquisite in delicacy of conception, with the added beauty of Longfellow's magic verse, than that of “Sandalphon.” Lancisius quotes from Philo a tradition among the Jews. God asked the angels what they thought of the work of His hands? One replied that it was so vast, so perfect, that only one thing was wanting to it; that there should be a clear, mighty and harmonious voice which should fill all the quarters of the world incessantly with its sweet sound in thanksgiving to the Creator. Did God set the spheres rolling to produce this harmony? Perhaps this is the secret of the music of them. But if fancy may revel amid the opening pages of the world's history and gather a wealth of imagery around these guardians of and ministers to the wants of the young creation-how much richer and more replete with beauty is the wonderful and awesome epoch of the coming of the lost world's Saviour? And here, we |