Angels
What is an angel?
What does the word "angel" mean?
It is from the Greek, angelos, and means "messenger."
Are angels "persons"?
Yes, absolutely.
To be a person is to have an identity, a personality, intelligence, and free will. A person is the kind of being that can say "I" of itself.
Humans (and extra-terrestrials, if they exist) are the very lowest form of persons in the hierarchy of being. Animals have identity and "personality" (individual characteristic behavior), but do not have intellect and will as persons do.
Each angel is a unique person, with intelligence and free will. They are more unique, more different from one another, than we are because each angel is a species (kind of being) unto itself. Human beings all share a common human nature and are members of the same species.
The highest kind of person is found in the Three Persons of the Trinity. Although one in being (homoousios, consubstantial), the Three Persons are distinct in their personal identity. The Athanasian Creed teaches us that the Father is not the Son nor the Spirit; the Son is not the Father nor the Spirit; the Spirit is not the Father or the Son. Each of the Divine Persons says "I" of Himself and "Thou" to the other two Persons of the Trinity.
Do angels have free will?
Do angels live in time?
When were angels created?
Can an angel repent of sin and be forgiven?
Can angels move physical things?
Can angels work miracles?
Can angels appear on earth?
Do angels have wings and halos?
How do angels move from one place to another?
How do angels know things?
Do all Catholics have to believe that angels exist?
How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
Do angels sing?
Do angels play musical instruments?
What are the nine choirs of angels?
- First hierarchy
- Seraphim
- Cherubim
- Thrones
- Second hierarchy
- Dominions
- Virtues
- Powers
- Third hierarchy
- Principalities
- Archangels
- St. Michael: "Who is like God?"
- St. Gabriel: "Strength of God"
- St. Raphael: "God heals"
- Angels
Why are Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael called "saints"?
Was there really a war among the angels?
"And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back" (Rev 12:7).
How do angels fight a war?
"but the prince of the kingdom of Persia stood in my way for twenty-one days, until finally Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me" (Daniel 10:13).
"Yet the archangel Michael, when he argued with the devil in a dispute over the body of Moses, did not venture to pronounce a reviling judgment upon him but said, 'May the Lord rebuke you!'" (Jude 1:9).
Why does God let devils exist?
Why doesn't He lock them up once and for all and keep them all away from us?
Was the serpent an angel?
Genesis 3:1 says, "Now the snake was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made." Why do so many people say that this was the devil or Satan when the Scripture plainly reports that the serpent was an animal?
What does the word "Satan" mean?
What does the word "devil" mean?
Does the devil really cause people to sin?
Can the devil really take possession of people?
Does everyone have a guardian angel?
Does my guardian angel have a name?
Is it OK for me to give my guardian angel an name?
Do the angels love us?
Are the angels happy?
Is it OK to pray to the angels?
Why was St. Thomas called "The Angelic Doctor"?
Did he see angels?
Did he have a special devotion to the angels?
What was his "proof" for the existence of angels?
Do the people whom we love become our angels when they die?
- No. Angels and humans are very different kinds of being. Angels do not turn into humans nor do humans turn into angels.
- The otherwise very excellent and moving film, It's a Wonderful Life, has contributed to this confusion, as has contemporary godless devotion to angels as spiritual guides. In the movie, it is clear that Clarence is a human being who died two hundred years before the time the story takes place. He had been a watchmaker and was married.
- Many grieving family members console themselves with the thought that their loved one will become an angel and watch over them for the rest of their lives. It would be better to think of such souls as part of the Communion of Saints.
Have you ever seen an angel?
Not that I know of. But I see no reason in principle why I might have been visited by angels without being aware of their true nature. Angels have the power to act without revealing their glory to human eyes.
Do you pray to the angels?
Yes. So does the whole Church. In the Confiteor, we say: "Therefore, I ask Blessed Mary, Ever-Virgin, and all the angels and saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord Our God."