Asking Our Angels for Help

Fr. Ripperger tells us in one of his talks on our guardian angels, as a friend reminded me yesterday, that we can and should ask our angels for help in growing more perfect.

Specifically, one can ask one's angel to humble one and make one see one's predominant fault.

I am praying this prayer-Dear Angel, humble me interiorly and show me my predominant fault. Then, show me how to destroy this fault, for the glory of God and His Church.

I made up this prayer, but it works for me. Your angel wants you to become perfect. I am asking mine more directly to help me on the way to illumination and union with God.

On Graces Abounding

When Our Lady appeared to St. Catherine Laboure in 1830, she foretold long years of turmoil and even persecution of the Church in France. The 19th century saw some of the worst rebellions against Catholicism since the French Revolution. Our Lady wanted the French, and, indeed, all Catholics, to be protected from apostasy and even death. The Miraculous Medal remains a gift for all Catholics.

What is forgotten are the rings which Mary wore on her fingers in the visions. Some of the rings emanated great light, which represented graces coming upon the earth, but some were dim. When Catherine asked Our Lady why some rings were dim, she replied that those were the graces for which no one asked.

I have wondered lately what those graces are. One can only guess.. remember that St. Catherine is one of the many, over 100, incorruptibles.

However, seeing the times of which Mary warned, times of turmoil in France, revolutions against Catholicism and western values, the coming of the great tyrannies and all the isms of Modernism, I shall surmise what some of these graces could be for which we should ask of Mary.

Here is a list of graces which we may forget to ask of Mary:

1. The grace of final perseverance, a special grace given to the dying, as death can be a fearsome time.
2. The grace of detachment from family, so that we learn to love family members in Christ and not to become hooked into their problems which lead us away from God. Many things which families face are not of God and need to be left to God, and not our activities.
3. The grace of forgiveness towards our enemies, even those enemies inside the Church. The grace of forgiving ourselves and not being preoccupied with past sins.
4. The grace of generosity and flexibility with regard to God's Will in our lives. Only those who are generous of heart become perfected.
5. The grace to become perfected on earth, and to not aim for purgatory but sainthood.
6. The grace of daily courage to stand up for the Faith in all circumstances.
7. The grace to desire mortifications, suffering, and humility.
8. The grace of complete detachment not only from things, but from people.
9. The grace of self-knowledge and to see the predominant fault.
10. The grace to love Christ above all people and things of this world.

Met Another Angel

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/07/on-meeting-angels.html

I moved to a place because I was offered this house while, and because I met an angel.

Being in the state of New Jersey, I attended Mass and was invited to morning prayer with a group of men, (in this church, there was no morning prayer with women). On this particular day, I was mulling over moving to this empty house offered for seveal months, not wanting to go somewhere temporary yet again, and having to most likely move again in the future.

After Morning Prayer, this one young man came up to me and asked me if I would be at future prayer times, and I said no, I was moving to S..... He looked at me intensely and said "I will be there until the end of the month working in the health industry." He seemed to want to speak with me more, but another person came up and began speaking with him. Then, we all left.

No one has seen that man again in that church. No one knows who he is . He has not come back to Morning Prayer.

When he looked at me, I thought I was looking at purity and innocence, rarely seen in younger people.

He was my encouragement to come here.

My stay here is limited, but God has instructed me to continue working on the chapel and getting chapel things. No matter where I am, this chapel will exist, open to any who want to come.

God is in charge and He has a plan. His angels watch over us.

Of course, remember, the name of this chapel is St. Mary of the Angels and Martyrs, in Ephesus.

On Today's Readings part three

Mary is called "highly favored" in some translations by the Archangel Gabriel, the messenger. In the Judaic tradition, Gabriel is not only the messenger of God, but the destroying angel at the Passover in Egypt.

That Gabriel, who caused, in God's will, the last plague, which led directly to the freeing of the Hebrews from slavery, is the angel who tells Mary she will be the Mother of the Messiah, the Son of God, seems to be a happy non-chance.

I do not see in my imagination a soft, cuddling, feminine image of Gabriel. I see strength, a spirit of power and grace. Gabriel bursts into history again, as he did in the Old Testament.

He who paved the way for Moses to lead the people to freedom comes to announce to Mary that she leads us to freedom through her Son, Jesus Christ.

Mary is highly favored, she is blessed. She, alone of all humans, from conception, is full of grace. Gabriel knows this. He would not only be full of love, but awe at the call of this woman. Mary, as the Theotokos, the God-Bearer, now becomes Queen of all angels.

Her call reminds us of the long salvation history of the Old Testament. Gabriel comes to this lowly Hebrew young woman, explains God's will for her life, and waits for her answer. He who destroyed the first born of the Egyptians, brings news of the First Born of all creation, the Incarnate One, the Son of God, prefigured in Moses. Christ is the Savior, the real freedom fighter of all mankind. Gabriel waits.

Fiat voluntas Dei.

Gabriel returns to God and history is never the same. God enters the world through the womb of a young daughter of the Jewish people. All history points to this moment and all history moves away from this moment. Human life would never be the same again. Praise God!

A Small Reminder

Please do not forget your guardian angels. They so much want to be acknowledged and asked for help. That is why they exist-to watch over and serve us, to help us get to heaven. Do you think of your angel? Your angel thinks of you.

On Guardian Angels

St.Therese, the Little Flower, and St. Padre Pio, tell us that we can send our Guardian Angels to other people in order to speak words of consolation to them.

St. Therese wrote a lovely poem about her angel and bid him visit those friends of hers who needed comforting. She even mentioned that the angel should whisper her name to that friend.

St. Padre Pio told people to “send their angels” to him and that he would listen to the intercessions brought by the angel. One source indicates that St. Padre Pio would send one’s angel to another person to whisper thoughts, inspirations, and consolations to that person.

This teaching is not doctrine or infallible teaching, but one can see that two of the greatest saints of the last century believed and, indeed, had personal experience of sending angels to those they loved or who were entrusted to them.

I do this more and more, especially with friends or family members experiencing depression, unemployment, confusion, lack of confidence.  I send a guardian angel to St. Padre Pio and ask him to speak to the angel proper words of intercession for another person and then send the angel to that person. I trust in St. Padre Pio’s discernment more than my own, of course.

One of my spiritually mature friends uses her angel to send messages of consolation to others through Padre Pio. If any of the readers have any experiences concerning the employment of guardian angels, feel free to comment.

We do not use those loving companions of the angelic hosts enough. They are waiting for us to acknowledge their love and care.

I have had one experience of being awakened in the middle of the night with a message from far-away country. I did immediately pray for this person. Respond to such inspirations. Someone, through Padre Pio, could be asking you for prayer, as we are all connected in Christ.

Does Everyone Have A Guardian Angel?

In recent times, it has been brought to my attention that the Church has not made a definite statement as to whether all humans have a guardian angel, or whether just the baptized.

The CCC states this:

The angels in the life of the Church

334 In the meantime, the whole life of the Church benefits from the mysterious and powerful help of angels.²⁰¹

335 In her liturgy, the Church joins with the angels to adore the thrice-holy God. She invokes their assistance (in the funeral liturgy's In Paradisum deducant te angeli. . .["May the angels lead you into Paradise. . ."]). Moreover, in the "Cherubic Hymn" of the Byzantine Liturgy, she celebrates the memory of certain angels more particularly (St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, and the guardian angels).

336 From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession.²⁰² "Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life."²⁰³ Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God.

The footnote is to a work by St. Basil, which indicates that only those who are baptized have an angel.

203 St. Basil, Adv. Eunomium III, I: PG 29,656B.

St. Thomas Aquinas, as well as St. Jerome, write that all humans have a guardian angel.

Each man has an angel guardian appointed to him. This rests upon the fact that the guardianship of angels belongs to the execution of Divine providence concerning men. But God'sprovidence acts differently as regards men and as regards other corruptible creatures, for they are related differently to incorruptibility. For men are not only incorruptible in the common species, but also in the proper forms of each individual, which are the rational souls, which cannot be said of other incorruptible things. Now it is manifest that the providence of God is chiefly exercised towards what remains for ever; whereas as regards things which pass away, the providence of God acts so as to order their existence to the things which are perpetual. Thus the providence of God is related to each man as it is to every genus or species of things corruptible. But, according to Gregory (Hom. xxxiv in Evang.), the different orders are deputed to the different "genera" of things, for instance, the "Powers" to coerce the demons, the "Virtues" to work miracles in things corporeal; while it is probable that the differentspecies are presided over by different angels of the same order. Hence it is also reasonable to suppose that different angels are appointed to the guardianship of different men.

Reply to Objection 1. A guardian may be assigned to a man for two reasons: first, inasmuch as a man is an individual, and thus to one man one guardian is due; and sometimes several are appointed to guard one.

Secondly, inasmuch as a man is part of a community, and thus one man is appointed as guardian of a whole community; to whom it belongs to provide what concerns one man in his relation to the whole community, such as external works, which are sources of strength or weakness to others. But angel guardians are given to men also as regards invisible and occult things, concerning the salvation of each one in his own regard. Hence individual angels are appointed to guard individual men.

And here....

Article 5. Whether an angel is appointed to guard a man from his birth?

Objection 1. It would seem that an angel is not appointed to guard a man from his birth. For angelsare "sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation," as the Apostle says (Hebrews 1:14). But men begin to receive the inheritance of salvation, when they are baptized. Therefore an angel is appointed to guard a man from the time of his baptism, not of his birth.
Objection 2. Further, men are guarded by angels in as far as angels enlighten and instruct them. But children are not capable of instruction as soon as they are born, for they have not the use of reason. Therefore angels are not appointed to guard children as soon as they are born.
Objection 3. Further, a child has a rational soul for some time before birth, just as well as after. But it does not appear that an angel is appointed to guard a child before its birth, for they are not then admitted to the sacraments of the Church. Therefore angels are not appointed to guard men from the moment of their birth.

On the contrary, Jerome says (vide A, 4) that "each soul has an angel appointed to guard it from its birth."

I answer that, as Origen observes (Tract. v, super Matt.) there are two opinions on this matter. For some have held that the angel guardian is appointed at the time of baptism, others, that he is appointed at the time of birth. The latter opinion Jerome approves (vide A, 4), and with reason. For those benefits which are conferred by God on man as a Christian, begin with his baptism; such as receiving the Eucharist, and the like. But those which are conferred by God on man as a rational being, are bestowed on him at his birth, for then it is that he receives that nature. Among the latter benefits we must count the guardianship of angels, as we have said above (1,4). Wherefore from the very moment of his birth man has an angel guardian appointed to him.

Reply to Objection 1. Angels are sent to minister, and that efficaciously indeed, for those who shall receive the inheritance of salvation, if we consider the ultimate effect of their guardianship, which is the realizing of that inheritance. But for all that, the angelic ministrations are not withdrawn for others although they are not so efficacious as to bring them to salvation: efficacious, nevertheless, they are, inasmuch as they ward off many evils.

Reply to Objection 2. Guardianship is ordained to enlightenment by instruction, as to its ultimate and principal effect. Nevertheless it has many other effects consistent with childhood; for instance to ward off the demons, and to prevent both bodily and spiritual harm.

Reply to Objection 3. As long as the child is in the mother's womb it is not entirely separate, but by reason of a certain intimate tie, is still part of her: just as the fruit while hanging on the tree is part of the tree. And therefore it can be said with some degree of probability, that the angel who guards the mother guards the child while in the womb. But at its birth, when it becomes separate from the mother, an angel guardian is appointed to it; as Jerome, above quoted, says.

It is interesting that the CCC takes the older definition or opinion and not the latter one of Thomas.

to be continued...

Repost of five most popular posts on the blog

Sunday, 14 July 2013

On Meeting Angels

Twice I have met people who may not have been people but angels. I know this sounds odd, but we do have 

such an encounter in the Book of Tobit and the fruit of such meetings determines truth.

The first was last October, when I was staying in the monastery. A nun who was the superior of her order came 

to stay in my hall on a silent retreat. I was instructed not to speak with her, which was fine, as I was being 

obedient, quiet, and not inclined to speak with guests.

I shall not give all the very interesting details, but after 24 hours, she came to me and said she was at the 

monastery for me, and that she would speak with me daily. As I was getting no feedback at the time, I was 

delighted but puzzled.

After the ten days, much advice and counselling from her experience as a superior, and after many prayers for me, plus notes and letters, she left. She had a sense of humour and at least once, we had a great laugh.

She did not want me to join that order. She gave me a book she just happened to have about a priest whose 

ministry is writing.

When I finally left the convent, I phoned the order where she was superior. I phoned two of their houses. The 

order has no such sister of that name and no superior of that name.

I had a hard time understanding this. I began to review her contacts with me. She never ate or drank anything in 

front of me. She only talked of sensible and pastoral things, such as me getting more sleep and not pushing myself. She also taught me how to approach God in Adoration. She also gave me two cards with angels on them.

I think she was an angel.

Today, I may have had another encounter with an angel. I went to a local coffee house for an iced chai, which for 

some reason I was craving. I sat outside and an Irishman started talking to me.

He talked sense about everything political, obviously being a real Catholic, not a socialist, and one who could see 

the signs of the times. He was the first older Irishman bar one I have met who understands the way of the world. 

And, he told me Ireland has lost her identity, which was the point of two of my recent posts, here and on another 

log.

But, what was so strange were two comments he made to me. I asked him what his job was and his reply was this.

"If I told you my job, I would no longer have it." So, naturally, I asked him if he worked for the government, and 

he said no very strongly.

I was puzzled, as this man, who told me he grew up in the country, who does not have a computer or never goes 

on the internet (amazing) could hold a 45 minute conversation on all the levels of moral decay, political ruin, and 

such in Ireland and the EU in detail. He was very strong against Masonic influence here. He was some type of 

genius outside the box.

But, then, a second strange statement came with his strong country accent-"Good luck on your journey." I said I 

was not going anywhere for several months. But, he repeated it "Good luck on your journey".

Now, I suppose angels do not believe in luck, but they do act like normal people, as did Raphael, in the above book, who basically "lied" to Tobit about who he was-one of his first cousins once removed or something.

But, what journey did this person mean today?  I went back and thought about the strange encounter.

Bingo! My journey towards perfection. I have been bogged down in the awareness of sinful inclinations and 

whether I was too evil for God to answer my prayers. I have been in darkness for weeks. My "angel" was 

underlining something said to me in Confession this morning as well. God is in charge and His Divine Providence guides every prayer. All of our desires and prayers are in His Will, if we are allowing Him to guide us. We must 

persist in prayer and on the journey to perfection, even though we cannot see a thing, either physical or spiritual. 

Also, what happens around us is there to help us on our way.

We pray in the Will of God and act in the Will of God daily, if this is our desire and if we are willing to undergo purification. The outcome of this discussion was the welling up of the awareness of God's particular love for me.

I am so fortunate as to have found a holy, wonderful confessor as well. What a treat. He understands the journey 

of perfection, which is rare for priests.

I am fortunate that God encouraged me over chilled chai.  The handshake of this man was so strong I could hardly believe it. One never knows when one is entertained or entertaining angels.

I needed this little encouragement. By the way, this person had such a sense of humour, I was laughing off and on. 

He told me that the only two places which were the real Ireland were Dublin and Cork. He knew Cobh. He said all 

the rest was grass and wind.

He also said that the Irish say that  further west one travels in Ireland, the more one understands why the Wise Men came from the East.

Now, I am much more peaceful on my journey today after this odd encounter. I have been encouraged in my world view, to see the end of Western Civ and the downfall of Europe, which he prophesied, as part of God's Providence, 

and that good will come out of ruin. He also said all the countries would go back to being separate in order to find themselves....I think this is true. He knew all about the current corruptions of Europe and America.

He also said, (what we know on this blog), that the evil has come from poor Catholic education, bad priests, and 

evil politicians, as well as the greed of the banks.  He noted that he never used credit cards and was not in debt. 

(I do not use credit cards and I have no debt.) This person said that now the Irish judge people by a price tag and 

that everyone has one-in the mind of the secularist. He said that Ireland was now a police-state and that people 

had lost their independence. My observations have been supported.

I do not know, but anyone today who is completely au fait and never on line must be inspired. He quoted a book, 

one from the 1940s, which I shall look up.

Odd encounter of a second kind. No third. I forgot another one in Malta. For another day....

On angels and not from a new age view

Father Ripperger, in one of his talks, states that angels are stronger and smarter that humans. I was talking to a friend who could not understand that Satan was extremely intelligent, more so that the smartest human being. He was arguing with me that God would not have an evil being smarter than a human in sanctifying grace.

Sorry. This is simply not true. As an exorcist, Father Ripperger is well-experienced in angelology from solid orthodox view. Angels communicate with something like telepathy and can will to be somewhere and are.

We would be full of pride to think we can come up against demonic power by ourselves. Too many charismatics think they are dealing with angels when in reality they are being deceived. Only priests who are appointed exorcists under a bishop and those lay people who may be on a diocese exorcist team. No one else can be doing the work of dealing with evil spirits. This is a huge deception from the charismatic renewal.

Father Ripperger reminds us that angels were created in innocence; they have only three virtues, faith, hope and charity. They also were created in sanctifying grace. They were creating in a state of knowing. But, they function differently than we do. If they think of something, they know all about it according to their nature.

Each angel from creation had a role to play in relationship with Christ. So, Lucifer knew that he would serve a God-Man. Satan could not accept the fact that Mary, a woman, would excel him in grace-a woman and a person.

He rejected Christ because of Mary, says St. Louis de Montfort. Therefore, Mary will be the one to overcome Christ and did through the Incarnation. Our Guardian Angels knew from the moment of their creation to whom they would be a guardian. How wonderful. The second act of charity of

From the first moment of their creation they knew and chose God or against God. Christ said, Satan was a liar from the beginning. Father Ripperger, from whose talks I have taken this knowledge, states that the battle imagery is just fake. Of course, he is correct, as pure intellect chooses immediately.

One of the most interesting things which Fr. Ripperger states is that angels should not be depicted as women, and that this is a new thing in more recent times, than in the past.

Every single angelic nature is different from each angel. Their differences are huge. All priests have two angels-a second one received at ordination.

Father Ripperger states what we know, that sin makes human stupid, but not angels. They have all the intelligence given to them before their fall. Demons do not know future events and cannot read our minds. Father Ripperger warns us all to stay in sanctifying grace. Without grace, we do not have a chance against demons. Period. The demons experience the pain of loss-they will never be happy, as they are separated forever from God. Certain actions open one up to demonic activity. Do not commit mortal sin and try and work to stay away from venial sin.  The saints take the place of the lost demons. Cool...And we have actual grace to gain us the place we have in heaven. Father Ripperger is particularly fond of St. Padre Pio., btw.

Father reminded us that the Vatican said we cannot, cannot name our guardian angels. Only those who have authority over someone can name them. If you have done this, repent.

Maybe, to be continued...