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Angels of the Lord
365 Reflections on Our Heavenly Guardians
Angels of the Lord
365 Reflections on Our Heavenly Guardians
Catherine M. Odell & Margaret A. Savitskas
OurSundayVisitor
www.osv.com Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. Huntington, Indiana 46750
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C., and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America copyright © 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. — Libreria Editrice Vaticana. English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Modifications from the Editio Typica copyright © 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. — Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
Excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation (ICEL); excerpts from the English translation of Non-Biblical Readings from The Liturgy of the Hours © 1973, 1974, 1975, ICEL; excerpts from the English translation of Pastoral Care of the Sick: Rites of Anointing and Viaticum © 1982, ICEL. All rights reserved.
Quotations from papal and other Vatican-generated documents available on vatican.va are copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
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Copyright © 2016 by Catherine M. Odell and Margaret A. Savitskas. Published 2016.
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Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750; 1-800-348-2440.
ISBN: 978-1-61278-390-1 (Inventory No. T1757)
eISBN: 978-1-61278-395-6
LCCN: 2016945377
Cover design: Chelsea Alt
Cover art: Detail from Annunciation, by Albany (Restored Traditions)
Interior angel image copyright © Alex Husak/Shutterstock.com
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Introduction
In Angels of the Lord: 365 Reflections on Our Heavenly Guardians you will discover many of the ways God has sent his glorious angels into our world. Every day for a year, you will find a Scripture passage, Church teaching, quote, or story about an angelic encounter. Also included in this book are readings that share the wonderful way that angels have inspired the world’s greatest writers, painters, sculptors, and musicians.
In recent years, many Christians have either forgotten about the reality and role of angels, or have reduced them to sweet and harmless imitations of human beings. In fact, angels are so much more! They are the greatest of God’s creatures. They are powerful heavenly beings who were made by God before he created the world. Their intelligence is second only to God’s, and each angel has a unique personality. Angels serve God in all things, and in doing so, they reflect the glory of God — light from Light. They adore, praise, and honor God completely and eternally.
The angels were made through and for Christ. They are his angels even as they are charged with the mission to assist, protect, and guide human beings and all of God’s creation. The word “angel” (Latin angelus; Greek aggelos) is from the Hebrew for “one going” or “one sent”; a messenger). “Angel” refers not to their nature, which is pure spirit, but to their ministry of being a messenger. The phrase “the angel of the Lord” was used as a way of describing how God sometimes came to people in human form.
One role of the angels is to be sent into our world with a message for mankind, and sometimes to individuals with a message for all of us. Though the angels in the Bible and the lives of the saints appear as human beings in order to communicate with us, angels do not have, and never had, bodies. A creature made of only will and intellect is hard for us to imagine. Yet angels have been depicted in art for thousands of years — sometimes as ethereal beings far beyond the reach of humans, sometimes as ordinary persons to emphasize their closeness
