All about angels

[Joan_Anderson]

A member of this group asked me to reprint a small piece of one of my books on angels. She thought it might be appropriate in honor of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to New York this week. I write books on angels and miracles, and this clip was taken from In the Arms of Angels (LOyola Press)

A week after the World Trade Center explosions, word circulated that a trumpeter was playing at Ground Zero. A well-known photographer went to see for himself. In the eerie quiet of lower Manhattan, he could hear the notes as he approached a barricade. “The trumpeter stood in this urban canyon, illuminated by shafts of light caused by the smoke and dust, ” the witness reportedly told others. Who was he? In a place of such intense security, how could a lone musician be allowed behind police lines? Looking through his lens, framing the unlikely stranger amid the rays, the photographer realized that this was the photo of a lifetime. “But I couldn’t depress the shutter,” he said. He lowered the camera in defeat.

His colleagues reported the same phenomenon. Apparently no one could snap a picture. “Maybe he’s an angel,” one suggested.
Mark Judelson, Executive Director of the Arts Council of Rockland, was struck by this event, and has written and performed a mini-play about it. “I think the trumpeter was the Angel Gabriel,” he says today. “With his music, he blessed this site of carnage, and taught us to accept loss.”

 

[ruslan]

Thank you for posting this.

 

[kujayhawk]

I also thank you for posting this amazing story.

I firmly believe that we are in the company of angels as they do their work on this earth.

 

[NeedImprovement]

Hebrews 13:2 “Do not neglect to show hospitality, for by this means men have entertained angels unawares.”

I’ve given my guardian Angel a nick name. It’s a little easier to speak with him this way (and quicker too). If I’m blessed enough to get to heaven our dear Lord will reveal his real name to me then.

I’d posted the following in another thread recently; it appears to fit even better into this thread.

Taken from Fr. Paul O’Sullivan’s book, THE WONDER OF THE MASS, TAN Books :

St. Gregory: “The Heavens open and multitudes of Angels come to assist at the Holy Sacrifice.”

St. Augustine: “The Angels surround and help the priest when he is celebrating Mass.”

St. John Chrysostom: “When Mass is being celebrated, the Sanctuary is filled with countless Angels, who adore the Divine Victim immolated on the altar.”

The efficacy of the Mass is so wonderful, God’s mercy and generosity are then so unlimited, that there is no moment so propitious to ask for favors as when Jesus is born on the altar. What we then ask we shall almost certainly receive, and what we do not obtain in the Mass we may scarcely hope to receive by all other prayers, penances or pilgrimages.

The Angels know this full well and come in multitudes to adore God and make their petitions at this hour of mercy.

We read in the revelations of St. Bridget: "One day when I was assisting at the Holy Sacrifice, I saw an immense number of Holy Angels descend and gather around the altar, contemplating the priest. They sang heavenly canticles that ravished my heart; Heaven itself seemed to be contemplating the great Sacrifice. And yet we poor, blind and miserable creatures assist at the Mass with so little love, relish and respect!

“Oh, if God would open our eyes, what wonders should we not see!”

When Blessed Henry Suso, the holy Dominican, was saying Mass, Angels in visible form gathered around the altar, and some came near to him in raptures of love.

This is what takes place at every Mass, though we do not see it.

Do Catholics ever think of this amazing truth? At Mass they are praying in the midst of thousands of God’s Angels."