Today at Castel Gandolfo, Pope Benedict addressed a group and appropriately spoke about the Holy Angels, saying:
The invisible presence of these blessed spirits is of great help and comfort to us: they journey by our side and protect us in every circumstance, they defend us from dangers and we can have recourse to them at every moment. Many saints fostered a rapport of true friendship with the angels, and there are many episodes which attest to their assitance in particular occasions.
The angels are sent by God "to serve those who are heirs of salvation" as the Letter to the Hebrews (1,14) recalls, and this they are for us a valid help in this earthly pilgrimage toward the heavenly homeland.
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I spent several hours creating a photo display of ancient religious art to honour the angels today on their feast day. Isn’t it said that Saint Michael presides over every Mass, offering the prayers of the faithful to the Most High God, as symbolized by the incense and smoke rising towards heaven? An angel of the Lord stood near the temple, having a golden censer in is hand, and there was given to him much incense, and the smoke of the perfumes ascended before God.
We’re having High Mass tonight at St. Stephen’s in Sacramento in St. Michael’s honor. He is invoked after every Low Mass during the prayers for the conversion of Russia. We certainly need him today for the sake of the Church and the world. Somewhere in the dim past I remember hearing that the altar server who is Master of Ceremonies during the Mass represents St. Michael. During the reading of Epistle and Gospel and the homily from the pulpit by the celebrant, he stands at the side of the priest’s chair (in our church, at the right front side of the sanctuary from the congregation’s view). He faces the congregation looking straight ahead, not moving, hands folded properly in prayer. I always think of him as our security guard, always on duty.
Check Rv. 8:3-4, in NAB and even AV. It looks close. It’s part of an vision before the Throne and the opening of the seven seals. This vision borrows the image of the Throne from the prophet’s call at the beginning of Is. 6, the roots of our Sanctus prayer at Mass.
Regards.
Today the Church places a selection from Homily 34 by Pope St. Gregory the Great
in the Office of Readings. I was lucky to find an English translation of the whole
homily at Google Books.
The URL will not show up in a combox, so those interested in reading it can google
“gregory great homily 34”, and it will show up down about 3-5 items.
The selection from today is portions of sections 8-9 on the Archangels.
On an earlier post, Fr. Z asked us to pray for Pope Benedict’s guardian angel. What is the correct way to do this? To pray to his guardian angel to assist Pope Benedict? or to pray to God to help his guardian angel? I hope this isn’t a silly question. I took your request seriously, I would like to do it correctly!
What else is coming
I must say that I love Papa Ratzinger more and more! How simple and yet thorough explanations!
You could pray both ways. And while you’re at it, you probably should say hi to your own guardian angel…. :)
I believe that guardian angels have saved my life on several occasions. I have put two accounts of their intervention for me on this link:
http://missionbell.homestead.com/angels.html
Is there a link for this so that I may read the whole speech?