What Do Angels Do?

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angels, archangels, Be an Angel Day, Book of Daniel, Book of Tobit, communication, Fr. Don Miller, Gabriel, Guardian Angel, guidance, Jayne Howard Feldman, Michael, protection, Raphael, Spiritual Center, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

One of the first prayers I (and many others) learned as a child was about angels. (Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here, ever this day (or night) be at my side to light and guard, to rule and guide.) It was great comfort to know that there was a being just over the border of our universe who was God’s gift to me personally. I didn’t have to theologize about it since it was a given and there were three great “Archangels” that we knew by name from Scripture, each with a mission: Michael protected, Gabriel announced and Raphael guided. (See visions in the Book of Daniel and stories from the Book of Tobit.) Why wouldn’t God give me someone to do those things for me? I never needed to name my angel as some children did. It was enough that God knew who was taking care of me.

Although devotional life has diminished in some cases in the face of scientific research, angels are still popular in more ways than as decorations on knick-knack shelves. Of the angels, Fr. Don Miller comments that “[B]elievers still experience God’s protection, communication and guidance in ways that defy description.” A frequent presence at the Spiritual Center in Windsor, NY where I live is Jayne Howard Feldman, called by many “The Angel Lady.” Her loving ways and guidance as well as her books on the angels have inspired many people in workshops and personal sessions. Jayne’s inspiration has led her to create “Be an Angel Day” and she is the best example of how to achieve that goal!

On this day when we are reminded of the “angels” in our lives, some of human description and some more ethereal, let us be grateful and imitate the ways in which we have been blessed by their inspiration and presence to us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of Creation Sings

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beauty in creation, bless the Lord, Book of Daniel, creation, Creator, prayers of gratitude, Thanksgiving, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today as we in the United States approach Thanksgiving Day, we are reminded by a section from the Book of Daniel to take note of the natural world in our prayers of gratitude. Even when all the flowers (at least here in the Northeast) are gone and the trees have shed all their leaves, even when frost replaces the loveliness of green grass (and the task of mowing!), even when the bears and some of the littler creatures have gone into hibernation, there is yet a beauty in creation. I find it most visible in the shapes of various trees, their branches not hidden now by leafy dressing, in the clarity of stars on cold nights of deepest darkness and in the patterns and sparkle of frost on sunny mornings. So now I call on the creation, as Daniel did, to “give glory and eternal praise” to the Creator of all:

Sun and moon, bless the Lord; stars of heaven, bless the Lord; every shower and dew, bless the Lord; all you winds, bless the Lord; fire and heat, bless the Lord; cold and chill, bless the Lord; praise and exalt Him above all forever! (DAN 3:62-67)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even in the silence…

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Book of Daniel, Business, Consumer Goods and Services, Flowers and Foliages, God, Lord, Refrain, Religion and Spirituality, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

As I look out my window this morning all is still. There is no wind and the gentlest snow is falling, so quiet as to disturb nothing of the silence that envelops the creation. In this moment the response to the first reading seems out of place with its refrain of “PRAISE AND EXALT HIM ABOVE ALL FOREVER” (from the Book of Daniel). The lines between repetitions of the refrain fairly shout wild activity with images of seas and rivers, dolphins and all water creatures, birds of the air, beasts wild and tame…but the line that spoke to me in the midst of this was: “Everything growing from the earth, bless the Lord.” I look out and see only bare trees and think of all the plants and bushes that we have cut down in preparation for winter. It seems as if nothing has survived the cold, but then a verse we often use for funerals comes to mind. “They seemed in the view of the foolish to be dead…” With that, I begin to feel the energy of those bulbs, sleeping now, which in the spring will amaze us with their beautiful flowers. And I know it is the same with us. The season that is upon us is the best for entering our “inner room” and recalling what is always happening in us if we are attentive. Our on-going creation – especially in the silence – calls us daily toward the recognition of God’s life in us which will appear, when we make ourselves ready, in the flowering of our truest selves.