God, have no free will and can only do what God orders them to do, e.g.
testing individuals by granting them wealth or curing illness. Many are
named in the Qu’ran, including Jibrail (Gabriel) and Mikail (the angel of
nature).
The Christian tradition inherited Jewish understanding, which in turn may
have been partly inherited from the Egyptians. The Christian concept of
‘angel’ is ‘messenger of God’. Individual angelic messengers were named
Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, Uriel and Lucifer (the fallen angel).
St Augustine says that ‘angel’ is the name of their office, not their nature.
Their nature is Spirit, they are spiritual beings who do not eat or excrete and
they are genderless. Nevertheless, there is some Jewish tradition ( written in
the Old Testament, but I cannot remember where), that women must cover
their hair by scarves or hats during divine services, since the angels, looking
down on them from above, might be sexually aroused. In art angels are
sometimes depicted as male or female, distinguished by their dress. The
exhibition at St Mungo also contained a little white feather, which would
indicate to the person who found it the presence of their guardian angel,
since in art angels are usually depicted as humanoids with bird like wings.
But this is nowhere to be found in the Bible. The interaction between angel
and man seems to be that angels appear in human form, therefore we
might meet them in another human being who can have the task to
communicate God’s message to us or perform another task which God
intents him to do.
By the late 4 th century church fathers agreed that there were different
categories of angels with appropriate missions and activities assigned to
them. The Jewish angelic hierarchy counts ten ranks of angels, beginning
with the highest (Chayot Ha Kodesh as written in the book of Ezekiel.)
Some of those we know from Christian liturgy, like the Seraphim, the Elohim
= Godly beings, and the Cherubim.
. - The ‘Te Deum’ tells us: “To thee all Angels cry aloud, the heavens and all
the powers therein/ To thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry/
Holy, Holy, Holy’ -Their different missions include to be intermediaries
between Heaven and Earth, protecting and guiding human beings, bringing
hope at difficult times or giving warnings of future events. ..
Angels are important because they provide people with an articulation of the
conviction that God is intimately involved in human life. (Brazilian Father
Thomas Rosica). Or, as Pope Francis said on the Feast of the Holy
Guardian Angels 2/10/14:
“No one journeys alone, and no one should think they are alone”.
Brigitte Williams
StOM Page 11