Friday, September 29, 2006

The Feast of the Archangels

ST. MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL

ST. GABRIEL THE ARCHANGEL

ST. RAPHAEL THE ARCHANGEL
The liturgy for today celebrates the feast of the three archangels who have been venerated throughout the history of the Church, Michael (from the Hebrew Who is like God?) is the archangel who defends the friends of God against Satan and all his evil angels. Gabriel, (the Power of God), is chosen by the Creator to announce to Mary the mystery of the Incarnation. Raphael, (the Medicine of God), is the archangel who takes care of Tobias on his journey.
I have a special fondness for angels and it is a sign of my Catholic geekiness, I suppose, that I got an excited "Christmas morning" sort of thrill when I realized today's feast.

I read for the first time about angels when we were in the hospital with my father-in-law after his stroke. That made a big impression on me at the time. I always attribute the miracle that happened to the Holy Family but the angels are divine messengers and so have their place in it as well. Because of that I always have remembered that we can call not only on our friends for intercessory prayer, but also on angels for intercession and help. The prayer to St. Michael is one of my favorites.
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray. And do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl around the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
Some more on angels.
You should be aware that the word "angel" denotes a function rather than a nature. Those holy spirits of heaven have indeed always been spirits. They can only be called angels when they deliver some message. Moreover, those who deliver messages of lesser importance are called angels; and those who proclaim messages of supreme importance are called archangels.
From a homily by Pope Saint Gregory the Great.
Sadly, I don't have any angel food cake (it really is not that sad an occurrence as I abhor angel food cake), however I may stop by and pick up some heavenly, cloud-like meringues on the way home so we can celebrate properly!

Other good places to read about angels today:
  • Images taken from this post by Mama T which you should go read also.
  • The Anchoress has a really wonderful reflection about all three angels and a link to a great piece about the book of Tobit (and if you haven't read the book of Tobit then stop reading these blogs and get thee to thy Bible! It is one of the best books in the Old Testament for my money ... so once again The Anchoress and I agree wholeheartedly)
  • Georgette shares one of the best excerpts I've ever seen about these angels (I'm printing this one out for repeated reading)
  • Mike Aquilina keeps us grounded in the fathers of the church as well as providing useful links to other good resources.
  • On the practical level, Elena has a good idea for an angelic feast
Here are some things I have written about angels which include facts as well as personal experiences (although these tend more toward guardian angels):
By at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)