October 1981 Print

from De Angelis by Reverend Ludovic-Marie Barrielle
Spiritual Director of the International Seminary of St. Pius X Ecône, Switzerland

Do the Good and Fallen Angels Have Names?

Yes, the angels—good or bad—have names. And it is helpful to know these names, because names express the essence and the activity of persons. Holy Scripture gives us only the names of the three Archangels: Saint Michael, the glorious chief of the heavenly armies. "Michael" means "Who is like unto God?" It is the cry of indignation which he shouted in the face of Lucifer's revolt. "Gabriel" or "the Power of God" was the messenger of the Most Holy Incarnation. "Raphael" or "the Medicine of God" shows us the role he played in the Book of Tobias ... and to come to the aid of men—weak and sick as we are, spiritually wounded by the demons.

We have, moreover, the names of demons, either in Holy Scripture or in the history of pagan activities, which were generally demons trying to get themselves adored. We know also the names of many demons, because in the course of exorcisms the Church demands to know their names before they depart from the possessed.

For the holy angels we know only the names of the angels which God has willed to make known in the Bible, or by privilege granted to certain mystical souls. He has, however, often spoken of angels in the Bible but without indicating their names. For example: The angels who greeted Abraham; those who led Lot and his family from Sodom; the one who consoled Agar in the desert; the angels of Jacob's ladder; the one who spoke to Elias in the desert; the one who carried Habacuc to Daniel in the lion's den; those who struck Heliodore, etc., the Angels who ministered to Jesus after His fast, the consoling angel in the Garden of Olives, the angels of the Resurrection, the angels of the Apocalypse, etc.

Our Duties Toward the Holy Angels

We have a great advantage in knowing the different choirs of angels with their different functions and to have a great devotion toward them and a great recognition of all the services which they perform for us. Let us form the habit of revering them, of praying to them, of thanking them for the help—known and unknown —which they continually bring us.

1. The duty of thanking them for their good services, known and unknown, for the body, for the soul, for the things which have to do, more or less, with our salvation. They defend us against the attacks of demons.

2. The duty of reverence toward them; their dignity is very great.

3. The duty of confidence and prayers. They are faithful, prudent and powerful.

4. The duty of respectful friendship and fraternal affection.

The Virgin Mary, whose clients and faithful and obedient servants they are, will help us to acquire their protection and friendship, even, I will dare to say, intimate and confident and habitual familiarity with them, full of the spirit of Faith.

The Guardian Angels

In this army of countless different ranks and functions, the infinite Goodness of God has deigned to give each one of us a guardian angel—very powerful, whose responsibility it is to watch over us.

This is theologically certain. Many great theologians think that it is a dogma of faith which one is obliged to believe under pain of no longer being a Catholic. Proof: 1. The feast of the Holy Guardian Angels which the Church has established; 2. the consent of the entire Church and of the Fathers; 3. the number of times in which Scripture speaks to us of this (Moses, Judith, Tobias, the three young men in the fiery furnace; in the prophets; in Maccabees, etc.), e.g. Psalm 90: "For to his angels he has given command about you, that they guard you in all your ways." And in Matthew 18.20: "Their angels in heaven always behold the face of my Father in heaven."

"What is the great dignity of our souls," says St. Jerome, "that each has to guard him an angel from the day of his birth." The Collect for the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels: "O God, Whose ineffable Providence has deigned to assign the holy angels for our protection...."

In certain countries, the Church has instituted a Feast of the Guardian Angel. Each one on that day celebrates his own angel—beautiful, touching, comforting thought.

The prayer from the Feast of St. Michael tells us: "O God, grant that we may be always assisted on this earth by those who serve Thee always in heaven." The Church has always taught that we are guarded and defended by the holy angels.

Calvin pretended that this dogma of the guardian angels was a slur on the protection of God, which would thus seem insufficient in itself because it was obliged to have recourse to the angels to guard us! As if the good Lord was not strong enough! As if the angels did not have their power from God! As if the angels were other gods!

He forgot that it was of the glory of God to use secondary sources created by Him and which showed us His goodness and His wisdom.

Since we are weak and the demons stronger than we are, we are susceptible to traps, so is it not fitting that we have defenders to aid us in combat? Men manage to protect themselves during their travels. Why would God not provide and furnish us this security during our earthly pilgrimage as He did for the prophet Eliseus, ...and so many others?

We will know only in heaven the help that we have received from our angel guardian here below. St. John Francis Regis in his cradle was found suddenly one day surrounded by flames lit, is was said, by demons. And how many times have we been saved in some such way from dangers to body and soul?

Let us thank our guardian angel. Let us teach our children this devotion. Let us not forget in our relations with our neighbor to get aid either from our angel or the angel of those with whom we are dealing. Let us ask him especially to precede us when demons surround us and help us to dispel them.

St. Jerome wrote: "What a great dignity for souls, that from their birth, they have an angel delegated to guard them." Father Corot, S.J., had a great devotion to the holy guardian angels. He founded an association for a holy death under the protection of the holy guardian angels. He wrote: "I have seen many persons die with great affection for their angel and I have always admired the extreme joy which they tasted at their death. Some said, 'My God, how happy I am that I have loved and invoked my angel.' Others said, 'I would never have believed I could have the good fortune to die so happy!' " St. Augustine says: "I speak not of the apparition of a soul from purgatory, but of the apparition of his angel coming to request prayers for that soul."

Exodus 23.23: "I will send my angel to guard you on the road."

The angels made for St. Clement who fell into the sea, a reliquary after his death. So Ecclesiasticus tells us: "After all the gifts which you have received of God through your good angel, do not say in front of your angel, There is no divine Providence."

To walk in the presence of our angel unites us to God.

Let us not forget Jacob's ladder.

Let us not forget St. Therese of the Child Jesus and her guardian angel, her songs. There is a kind of eternal parenthood which should exist between him and us.

October, the month of the holy angels! Source of great graces! From September 29th, Feast of St. Michael, to All Saints' Day, with the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels on October 2nd, and the Feast of the great St. Raphael on October 24th.

All the days of this month, let us honor the angels. Litanies of the guardian angel, of St. Michael, or of St. Gabriel or St. Raphael. Or the chaplet of the nine choirs of angels (which devotees of the angels should recite every day, something which would certainly transform their interior life).

 

The Devotion Which We Should Have Toward Our Guardian Angel

Saint Bernard in his sermon on Psalm 90, which the Church puts in the Second Nocturn of the Feast of the Holy Angels, insists on the devotion which we should have toward our guardian angel. Let us remind our children that they are never alone in their rooms, but that their guardian angel is always with them.

May this presence engender in us a great reverence toward our angel! Let us have a respectful affection and great awareness for all the goodness which he does for us. May his watchful guard engender in us a great confidence toward him.

May the great solicitude of your angel for your salvation be a great encouragement to cooperate with his efforts. And may this thought be also a powerful encouragement to work for the salvation of others.

What have we to fear? Our angels are faithful, wise and powerful! St. Bernard: "Above all let us take care to avoid scandalizing and opposing by bad example the efforts of their angels to sanctify those around us."

 

Does Everyone Have a Guardian Angel?

It is certain that every good person has his own guardian angel. This is often indicated in Holy Scripture. St. Basil wrote: "That each of the faithful has his guardian angel, no one will deny." The majority of theologians tell us that even sinners, pagans and infidels have a guardian angel, because Jesus died for all and He gives to all the means of salvation. Now it is a great means of salvation for all to have a guardian angel. Our angel keeps demons from us, he supports us in temptations and calls us every time we should pray, because by prayer we will obtain all the graces we need. He encourages us when the demons try to deceive and discourage us. He can intercede with God or Our Lady in any circumstances.

The majority of theologians think that Christ did not have a guardian angel, since His Sacred Humanity was directly united to the Word of God, forming one Person with His Divinity. However, Mechtilde Thaller affirms that St. Gabriel was the guardian angel of the Sacred Humanity of Christ. The Most Holy Virgin had her guardian angel. St. Bernard thought it was the Archangel Gabriel....

 

When Do We Begin to Have a Guardian Angel?

St. Thomas thinks the answer to this question is, From the moment of our birth, since before that we were protected by the angel of our mother. Other theologians, with good reason, think that we have a guardian angel from the time of our conception.

Our guardian angel never totally abandons us. But according to the experience of St. Frances of Rome, who habitually saw her guardian angel, her angel left her when she committed some venial fault, and did not reappear until she was reconciled with the Lord.

Does the role of our guardian angel end with our death?

For the souls of the damned, the role of the angel ceases. He remains in the service of the Virgin Mary.

For souls who go to Purgatory, the angel, when God wishes, comes to console them, to obtain suffrages for them from friends or saints on earth. The guardian angel conducts them to heaven. And in heaven itself, they meet together to rejoice in God. Their relationship of spiritual parenthood remains forever.

Let us learn in this way the awareness we should have toward our angel.

 

Do Communities, Families, Corporations, and Parishes Have a Special Guardian Angel?

There are indications that they do. In the Old Testament, God sent an angel often to guide the people, especially on certain circumstances, as in the desert.

There is first of all this union of diverse guardian angels. They should be united for the welfare of earthly beings.

I think furthermore that God sends either angels or celestial spirits according to necessity or the occasion. For example: in danger, in a war, epidemic, when a man becomes a bishop, or priest, an angel is sent, as happened to Tobias.

The Blessed Pierre Favre, first companion of St. Ignatius, had a great devotion to the angels of the country he was crossing. Let us do the same. It will help us in our difficulties, especially on trips, crossing frontiers, etc., let us invoke the angels.

When members of the family are absent and far away, let us pray to their guardian angels or to God through them and through Mary to send them the angelic being they need, as God sent Azarias to the family of Tobias.

If we have a meeting, a gathering, a catechism lesson, let us invoke the guardian angels. Too many Christians are unaware how to use the help of the holy angels. From far or near, the angels will help us. We will not know until heaven the help we have received from our guardian angel.

If men are able to do work which is superhuman or inconceivable for a single man: St. Francis Xavier, St. Ignatius, St. Vincent de Paul, St. John Bosco, Padre Pio, et al., it is because of a great devotion to the holy angels, these celestial spirits of different choirs coming to help them, bearing them up, inspiring others to help them.

Otherwise a single man could never have done such a job!

 

It Is the Hour of the Angels!

St. John Chrysostom, when he was driven from his church, said at the moment of departure to the bishops who were going with him: "Come, let us salute the angel of the Church!" And St. Francis de Sales, in his Introduction to the Devout Life, recommended: "Have regular contact with the angels! Love and reverence the angel of your diocese!" And he cites the example of Blessed Pierre Favre, the first priest of the Society of Jesus, celebrated for his devotion to the holy angels. As soon as he arrived in a village, he prayed to the holy angels (of that village). It was the time when Protestantism, especially in Germany, was replacing Catholicism. The churches were either demolished, or deprived of the Most Holy Sacrament, the altars broken down and replaced, as today, by tables. The "service" replaced the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, etc. The holy angels to whom Blessed Pierre Favre prayed, consoled the holy missionary, helped him in the conversion of souls and aided him even materially, protected him against demons, accidents, etc. Let us think of St. Francis of Assisi repairing ruined churches, aided by angels. We know of his devotion to the angels, to Our Lady of the Angels, we know of his stigmata received from the seraphim on Mt. Alvernia.

St. Dominic, when lost one night, was led back to his monastery by his guardian angel.

The Church is more than a human society; the angels and the saints are part of it! "With the angels we form the City of God," says St. Augustine in The City of God.

The holy angels are present in the chanting of the Psalms, in the sacraments, in baptism, at the renunciation of the devil, at the reception of Communion.

St. Nilus, speaking of St. John Chrysostom, says that the holy bishop often saw the church full of angels. He (St. John Chrysostom) says so himself and adds certain details. As soon as the Blessed Sacrament is on the altar, crowds of angels gather and crowd around the altar, and accompany the clergy who distribute Holy Communion. St. Angela of Foligno says the same thing; so do all the saints.

Père Lamy, the holy priest of Courneuve near Paris, during the First World War, heard angels saying to bees who were about to sting him: "Don't sting him; Our Lady forbids you!" He was protected from being hit by a motorcycle by St. Gabriel the Archangel on orders from Our Lady.

In the evening he could be heard talking in his room alone. When asked, "Were you talking with the angels?" he would say, "Maybe so; they are the consolation of the evening." In his parish of Courneuve were many railroad sidings, where trains of wounded soldiers waited during the night for daylight to be directed into the interior. The pastor, feeble and blind, was guided and sometimes carried by the angels, saying, "I am the priest of this parish." And often these seriously wounded called him and received the sacraments from his hands.

St. Frances of Rome was continually in conversation with her guardian angel, St. Raphael.

St. John Bosco inspired in his children a great devotion to their guardian angel. Once three masons fell from a scaffolding. The one in the middle invoked his guardian angel (of whom St. John Bosco had spoken), crying, "Save me!" The other two were killed; he was saved. St. John Bosco inculcated every day in his children a great devotion to their guardian angel. And it was thanks to these guardian angels that he was able to do so much good on the supernatural level in snatching them away from the demons, and on the human level by creating for the children apprenticeships, evening classes, leisure activities, always with a strong spiritual basis: devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to the Eucharist, to St. Joseph, to the holy angels.

The young St. Raymond Nonnatus, when he could not go to Mass because he had to keep watch over his sheep, saw a young man present himself to take his place: it was his guardian angel.

The same miracle happened to St. Isidore the Farmer. The master was astounded each evening at the amount of work done while Isidore went to Mass. An angel came to plow the field while Isidore was at the Holy Sacrifice.

The voices that Joan of Arc heard, prepared her and sent her to Charles VII, guided her and aided her in the capture of Orleans, in having the king consecrated, in telling him where he would suffer and where be triumphant.

How could St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier, St. Vincent de Paul, St. John Bosco, St. Pius X and so many others have done so much work except for the help of the angels!

Let us recall the role played by the angel at Fatima—this in our own day!

Think of the angel of the Annunciation, of Zachary, of the Crib, of the Flight into Egypt, and you will see the role that God has entrusted to his angels in the mystery of Christmas. The docility of St. Joseph to the angel sent from God to tell him what he should do: "And Joseph rose and did as the angel had told him...."