Angels (and Demons): What Do We Really About Them? (Ignatius Press; 2004, sixth printing) by Peter Kreeft:Posted on 09/28/2009 3:38:37 PM PDT by NYer
As tomorrow is the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, archangels, here is an excerpt from Angels (and Demons): What Do We Really About Them? (Ignatius Press; 2004, sixth printing) by Peter Kreeft:
The Twelve Most Important Things to Know About ThemA free 80-minute lecture,"Aquinas and the Angels," by Peter Kreeft can be accessed here.
1. They really exist. Not just in our minds, or our myths, or our symbols, or our culture. They are as real as your dog, or your sister, or electricity.
2. They’re present, right here, right now, right next to you, reading these words with you.
3. They’re not cute, cuddly, comfortable, chummy, or “cool”. They are fearsome and formidable. They are huge. They are warriors.
4. They are the real “extra-terrestrials”, the real “Super-men”, the ultimate aliens. Their powers are far beyond those of all fictional creatures.
5. They are more brilliant minds than Einstein.
6. They can literally move the heavens and the earth if God permits them.
7. There are also evil angels, fallen angels, demons, or devils. These too are not myths. Demon possessions, and exorcisms, are real.
8. Angels are aware of you, even though you can’t usually see or hear them. But you can communicate with them. You can talk to them without even speaking.
9. You really do have your very own “guardian angel”. Everybody does.
10. Angels often come disguised. “Do not neglect hospitality, for some have entertained angels unawares”—that’s a warning from life’s oldest and best instruction manual.
11. We are on a protected part of a great battlefield between angels and devils, extending to eternity.
12. Angels are sentinels standing at the crossroads where life meets death. They work especially at moments of crisis, at the brink of disaster—for bodies, for souls, and for nations.
Why do people think it's stupid to believe in angels?
One reason is a mistake about themselves: the failure to distinguish between (1) sense perception or imagination (which is a kind of inner sensing) and (2) reason, or intelligence, or understanding. We don't see pure spirits, and we can't imagine them. That doesn't mean we can't know or understand them. We can see and imagine the difference between a five-sided figure (a pentagon) and a six-sided figure (a hexagon), and we can also intellectually understand that difference. We cannot, however, sense or imagine the difference between a 105-sided figure and a 106-sided figure. Both look to us simply like circles. But we can understand the difference and even measure it exactly. So we can understand some things we can't see. We can't see qualities like good and evil either. What color or shape or size is evil? Yet we can understand them. We can imagine our brains, but not our minds, our personalities. But we can know them.
Many who deny angels deny or are uaware of the spiritual half of themselves. Angels are a touchstone of "know thyself". So are animals.
Aren't angels irrelevant today? This is the age of man, isn't it?
Yes, this is the age of man, of self-consciousness, of psychology. And therefore it is crucial to "know thyself" accurately today. The major heresies of our day are not about God but about man.
The two most destructive of these heresies—and the two most popular—are angelism, confusing man with an angel by denying his likeness to animals, and animalism, confusing man with an animal by denying his likeness to angels.
Man is the only being that is both angel and animal, both spirit and body. He is the lowest spirit and the highest body, the stupidest angel and the smartest animal, the low point of the hierarchy of minds and the high point of the hierarchy of bodies.
More accurately stated, man is not both angel and animal because he is neither angel nor animal; he is between angels and animals, a unique rung on the cosmic ladder.
But whichever way you say it, man must know angels to know himself, just as he must know animals to know himself, for he must know what he is, and he must know what he is not.
Gosh, I’m happy to help! I just have a good verbal memory ... sometimes it’s useful, and sometimes I remember stupid songs and movie dialog and wish I had a delete key.
If you’re the Marine of the tagline, thank you for serving! My daughter is in the Coast Guard.
Wow! My cousin had a 12 yr old son who died yrs ago and the night he died he told his dad (he was in the hospital)there were two other people in the room, and he thought one of them was a relative and he didn’t know the other one, but they wanted him to go with them, and my cousin who didn’t see them told his son if he wanted to go with them then he should. He fell back asleep and a few hours later he opened his eyes, help his arms up like a baby waiting to be picked up and then died. It chokes me up even now to write about it. The parents (were) agnostic at the time, but not now. God bless you and I am so glad to read your story too. I know there are angels amongst us.
A girl I knew who was dying of leukemia was near death and laying in her mother’s lap. She could barely breath or move one moment and the next moment she sat up excitedly and told her mother that they needed to say the Guardian Angel prayer and they had to kneel. She died a few hours later.
Oh, good point about the pentagrams. I haven’t seen any yet, although you never know with these complex dot-to-dot puzzles ...
My Dad’s a Mason; it could be genetic, huh?
help = held —— sorry
Tonight and on the reruns on EWTN show “Abundant Life” they are talking about angels. I have it on right now, Mike Aquino wrote a book an them, is the guest.
Holy Angel, overseer of my wretched soul and miserable life, do not abandon me a sinner, do not desert me because of my inconstancy; leave no place for the evil demon to obtain dominion over me by gaining control of this mortal body; strengthen my wretched and feeble hand, and guide me into the way of salvation. Yea, O Holy Angel of God, guardian and protector of my wretched soul and body, pardon me all things whereby I have saddened thee all the days of my life, and whatever sins I have committed this day; shelter me in the coming night and protect me from every abuse of the adversary, that I may not anger my God by any sin; and intercede for me to the Lord, to strengthen me in His fear, and show me to be a worthy servant of His goodness. Amen.
I love that story.
James had been put to death, and Peter was in prison in dire danger. The disciples were “earnestly praying” for him at Mark’s house. The angel released him, and he hurried to join them. But when he knocked, they wouldn’t let him in. It took repeated attempts for Peter to convince them that their prayers had been answered.
I love it when scripture shows how God works even through our weakness and unbelief. Makes me feel better when I find my own faith wavering.
Some people do a lot of things that are forbidden.
Anyways, if I talk to an angel who exists, then that is no different than talking to a human who exists. Respecting an angel who exists, is no different than respecting a human who exists. Asking an angel to do something that is within that angels power is no different than asking a human to do something that is within that human’s power.
We are to worship and love God above all AND love our neighbor as ourselves, so there is nothing wrong with loving and respecting others. We are not to love ONLY God but God first and then others. In fact it would be sinful not to love and respect others.
Some writer compared the Apostles to a Yiddische vaudeville troupe. Can you see “Mel Brooks’s ‘Acts of the Apostles’”? I can ... what a bunch of meshugganer yutzes, right?
The Bible is about people, and it’s terrific literature even if you just read it as straight-up stories.
ping for later
I DO, however believe angels and guardian angels exist and have had numerous experiences where no other reason, other than God using his divine messengers, could explain.
NYer: One more thought, too. Why are the angels, who's names we are given in Scripture, referred to as “Saints”?
Angels have appeared in many forms throughout Scripture and, if the story you mention is true, an angel appeared in this form for that special purpose. The angel, I don’t think, stayed in that form as a dog.
To liken human souls, or angelic, as “being” animals smacks of reincarnation. I do not believe this is true.
Now those improper fractions, should not be taught to children.
And you can waste *hours* trying to talk sense into an irrational number. Easy as pi, my foot...
Cheers!
> My Dad’s a Mason; it could be genetic, huh?
(grin!) Could be... do you have a brother, and if so is he a Lewis?
“You really do have your very own “guardian angel”. Everybody does.”
You know, I never really believed this, even when I was a kid I figured this was just a story told to kids. But my fearless daughter got into some physical scrapes along the way so much so that one day I just said to her “Your guardian angel must be about 8 feet high, this is what God gave you when He didn’t give you fear!” And then I just realized Guardian Angels were true.
A strange moment.
Wow! That’s such a beautiful prayer!
can an angel be in the form of a dog?
If God decides he wants an angel to take the form of a dog, who is going to tell him no?
Wow, such an UNSCRIPTURAL prayer!
I didn’t mean to cause any controversy with my question. It’s not always easy to talk of matters such as these without offending some although no offense was meant. I appreciate those people who offered an answer to my question.
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