in Rome, the angel Gabriel is shown appearing to Mary at the Annunciation in human form. No wings. In the fourth century, however, Christianity was legalized. Emperor Constantine authorized the building of Christian shrines and churches, where angels were often shown with wings to explain their instantaneous speed, freedom, and power.4
As the Ark of the Covenant was being built, God told the Israelites to portray the angels protecting it with wings: “The cherubim shall have their wings spread out above, sheltering the cover with them; they shall face each other, with their faces looking toward the cover” (Exodus 25:20).
January 6
Saint André Bessette (1845–1937)
Honoring Saint Joseph
Saint André Bessette, a Holy Cross brother from Montreal, saw that Christmas scenes typically featured Mary, Baby Jesus, angels, and shepherds. Saint Joseph, the foster father of Jesus was often in the background. Like the angels, God’s messengers, Brother André had something important to tell the world. Saint Joseph should be properly honored. When people were healed through André’s prayers, he gave all credit to Saint Joseph. When the beloved ninety-two-year-old brother died, all but the dome of Saint Joseph’s Oratory had been built to honor “the man in the background” and the power of prayer.5
“Those who give themselves to prayer should in a special manner have always a devotion to Saint Joseph; for I know not how any man can think of the Queen of the angels, during the time that she suffered so much with the Infant Jesus, without giving thanks to Saint Joseph for the services he rendered them then.”
— Saint Teresa of Ávila6
January 7
In the Society of Saints and Angels
Blessed John Henry Newman, a prominent Catholic convert of the nineteenth century, reflected on the reassuring presence of the spiritual world in our lives. “Though a member of this world, you have but to kneel in prayer and you are at once in the society of saints and angels. Wherever you are, you can, through God’s incomprehensible mercy, in a moment bring yourself into the midst of God’s holy Church invisible…. Are you lonely? Does the day run heavily? Fall on your knees and you are at once relieved by the reality of your unseen companions. Are you tempted to sin? Fix at once your eyes upon those pure and shining witnesses in God’s dwelling place.”7
Is there no border between visible and invisible, except perhaps in our own minds? A small leap of faith takes us into the presence of the saints and angels. How can they help me today?
January 8
Transported by Angels
In October 1962, Pope Saint John XXIII knelt to pray in the home of the Virgin Mary — not in Nazareth, or Jerusalem, or even Bethlehem. The pope went to Loreto, a small village in Italy, to seek the blessing of the Mother of the Church on the upcoming Second Vatican Council. He was in the house where tradition holds Mary was born, where the Archangel Gabriel greeted her and Christ was conceived, and where the Holy Family lived in Nazareth. An inscription on the wall of the humble dwelling reads: “Angels conveyed this house from Palestine.” The belief is that in the years 1291 and 1294, the house was miraculously carried by angels out of the Holy Land, first to a place of safety in Dalmatia (present-day Croatia) and after three years to Loreto, where it remains a place of pilgrimage.
In 1595, Pope Clement VIII had the story inscribed on the Holy House of Loreto, concluding with: Pious Pilgrims, worship with devout affection the Queen of Angels, our Gracious Mother, so that through her merits and prayers, she may obtain for you from her beloved Son, the forgiveness of sins, health of body, and the happiness of eternity.8
January 9
Homeless Angel
Angels are all around us. We just need to see and listen with our hearts. Barbara Romanowski shared her experience. “I was standing outside a department store when an older woman approached me and asked if I could give her change for a cup of coffee. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the only bills I had on me — $3.00. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered. ‘I’m an angel, you know, and I will watch over you.’ And she walked away. Only then did I realize that I had no money to get my car out of the parking lot. I stood there wondering how the heck I was going to get home. Starting to panic, I began checking my pockets for a train ticket I might have. When I put my hand into the pocket from which I had pulled the $3.00 I gave to the angel, I found three dollar bills in that pocket!”9
We are already strangely related, even acquainted, with the angels during our earthly lives. Once we attain to their company, to heaven, to the space of the heart of Christ, we shall no longer ask: “Who are you?” We shall probably call out in final recognition: “So it was you all the time!” 10
January 10
Airlifted by an Angel
Now the prophet Habakkuk was in Judea. He had boiled pottage and had broken bread into a bowl, and was going into the field to take it to the reapers. But the angel of the Lord said to Habakkuk, “Take the dinner which you have to Babylon, to Daniel, in the lions’ den.” “I have never seen Babylon,” the prophet excused himself, “and I know nothing about this den.” The angel of the Lord took Habakkuk by the crown of his head, lifted him by his hair and, with the rushing speed of the wind itself, set him down in Babylon, right over the den. Within moments, Daniel had his meal. Read this Old Testament angel story in more detail in Daniel 14:33–41.
“You have remembered me, O God,” said Daniel. “You have not forsaken those who love you.” When the king who had condemned Daniel found him still alive, he cried aloud: “You are great, O Lord, the God of Daniel, and there is no other besides you!” (Daniel 14:38–41)
January 11
Belief in Angels
A 2011 poll conducted right before Christmas by the Associated Press and Gallup pollsters revealed some surprising statistics. Many people who never went to church believed in angels! Overall, 77 percent of adult Americans then believed that “angels are for real.” Among all Christians in the United States, the percentage of believers was even higher — 88 percent. A majority of non-Christians claimed belief in angels, and four in ten Americans who didn’t attend religious services said they did, as well. Additionally, pollsters found that women were more likely than men to believe in angels. And adults over thirty tended to believe in the heavenly messengers more often than younger adults.11
“The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls “angels” is a truth of faith. The witness of Scripture is as clear as the unanimity of Tradition.”
— Catechism of the Catholic Church, 328
January
