Angels in my life

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, and all angels

It is a mystery; a glorious mystery.

Our faith tells us that angels exist, but I take the doctrine a bit farther and look at my own life and see that my personal experience also tells me that angels exist. For example,

When I look back over my life, I tremble at the thought of all the foolish and stupid things I have done, especially in my younger years, and I often pray the words of Psalm 25, “Do not remember the sins of my youth.” And when I think back as a somewhat mature adult, I also realize that somehow I was protected from the consequences of some of the things I had done, and I can’t help but think that my guardian angel (whose feast us usually celebrated on October 2) and perhaps many other angels were at work protecting me from the results of my own folly. And who is to know just how often we have been protected from harm that threatened to approach us? And I give thanks especially to Saint Michael, the great warrior who cast in hell Satan and all his evil spirits.

I also recall times when I have suddenly said or done something that turned out to be a great blessing for others, and probably for myself, and wonder whose hand it was that moved me in that direction. Was it the Holy Spirit? Was it the angels? “Turn here. Say this. Do that.” I believe that the angels continually guide us on our way, pointing us toward the good that we wouldn’t think of attaining on our own. And I give thanks to St. Gabriel, the messenger of God, who announces good things and predicts wonderful futures.

I recently went for a physical examination, and everything looks good, thank God. But I have so many conditions that arise as part of the aging process as well as physical issues that I have carried with me for most of my life, and I wonder how it is that at an advanced age I have not yet been completely broken down by ailments known and unknown, and realize that there must be a great deal of healing taking place within me, and I give thanks to Saint Raphael that great healer and guide on the journey.

Enough said. Before I conclude today’s reflection, I would like to give you a little gift in the form of a beloved passage of scripture. I have meditated on it often and I offer it to you as well for your own meditation this day:

. . . you have drawn near to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to myriads of angels in festal gathering, to the assembly of the first-born enrolled in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks more eloquently than that of Abel. (Heb 12:28)

God bless you!