Our angel friends.

Perhaps everyone who remembers their first childhood prayers has dealt with the world of angels. A picture of a guardian angel above a dangerous ravine used to be a standard fixture in children’s rooms, and the prayer to the guardian angel is still part of every child’s prayer repertoire. It is probably true, as Dr. Paul Strauss suggests, that “the fullness of man is in his childlike imagination.” When the exotic dreamlands gradually break and fade, the insurmountable journeys into unimaginable possibilities come to an end, and man grows into the shrunken dimensions of adulthood. This is one reason why adult Christians rarely remember these reasonable spiritual beings of God, perhaps only in danger. However, it is strange that many who are averse to the supernatural are drawn to mysterious figures that hover between heaven and earth. While it may seem that in today’s over-technologized world, where we can rationally explain everything, God is distant, He moves closer to us through His messengers – the angels. It is as if today’s man desires to transcend the known world and see the light of a new one, to be convinced that there is something else besides what we produce and consume.

Be that as it may, the world of angels is not just for children and romantics. Angels are part of the history of salvation, and their existence, as St. Gregory the Great claims, is spoken of on every page of Holy Scripture. From conception to ascension, the life of the incarnate Word is surrounded by the service of angels. They will also participate in Christ’s second coming and will serve Him at the Last Judgment. The protection and intercession of angels surrounds the life of man from birth to death. The Church believes, in the words of St. Basil the Great: “Every believer has an angel with him as a protector and shepherd, who guides him through life.” Already in this world, Christian life by faith participates in the blessed communion of angels and people united with God. God’s care for man and his salvation is almost unimaginable to human reason. The Old Testament Jews understood this as well, stating in the Talmud that God even gave an angel to every blade of grass to make it grow. How much more, then, does He care for man, whom He created in His own image! The task of an angel is to lead us deeper into the art of life, so that we may discover joy in it and act with appropriate responsibility. Everything in life is valuable, for it was miraculously created by God and enlivened by His Spirit. The angel’s most crucial task, in cooperation with us, is to bring us into God’s eternal kingdom, so that we may fully participate in His life. The return of angels to our lives is therefore more than necessary. For God needs us for His plan. He needs our hope, our faith, our heart, but also our courage to stake our lives on His promise, and for that, He has appointed helpers for us.