Reflections From the Pew...On Angels

“We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.” ~ Luciano de Crescenzo

I received an e-mail message the other day. It was one of those stories that people pass along because the sentiment is so nice. The story involves a young serviceman, an aged dying man, and a nurse.

As the story unfolds, the reader learns that the old man has been waiting for his son to arrive so that he can hold his hand one more time before dying. The nurse leads the serviceman to the old man’s hospital bed, and the young man grasps the old man’s limp hands in his own, holding them gently through the night. At dawn, the old man slips peacefully from this world and into the next, and the nurse returns to offer the serviceman some words of comfort. It is then that she is shocked to learn he is not the dead man’s son. When she queries him about why he spent the night with the old man, he tells her, “I knew right away that he needed his son, and his son wasn't here. I realized that he was too sick to recognize I wasn’t his son, and knowing how much he needed him, I stayed.”

Truly, this young serviceman was an angel of mercy to the old man, and this story got me thinking about angels. There are numerous references to angels in both the Old and New Testaments. The gospel writers tell us that Mary first learned of her Immaculate Conception from Gabriel, and Jesus was attended by angels many times in His life. Angels announced His birth, an angel ministered to Him during His forty-day fast in the desert, and in the Garden of Gethsemane, an angel from Heaven strengthened Him, “for He was in such agony of spirit that He broke into a sweat of blood” (Lk 22:44).

What is it about angels that captures our imaginations? I remember, as a child, being told that my guardian angel would always protect me (and; indeed, I have no doubt there were several instances when I was protected from physical harm by something much stronger than the laws of physics governing our earthly existence). There are references to angels in every religion and in even the most ancient of times. Angels are the subject of poems, books, movies, and music. They inhabit our popular culture and our most precious holidays. I must admit, I am swayed every time I hear those beautiful lyrics, “Fools rush in, where angels fear to tread…” (Johnny Mercer, 1940), and who can forget Clarence (and the significance of a ringing bell) after watching him help Jimmy Stewart’s character in, “It’s a Wonderful Life”?

That each and everyone of us has a guardian angel has never been defined by the Church, but it is the "mind of the Church,” as St. Jerome expressed it: "How great the dignity of the soul, since each one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard it." Truly, God must love us very much to send angels to minister to us in our times of need, to protect us in times of peril, and to rejoice in the accomplishments of our lives. If angels are pure spiritual beings, created by God with free wills, they are our spiritual cousins. If every soul has the potential to be pure, is it possible that we all have the potential to be angels? How many times have you heard someone say, “you are such an angel,” and how many times has someone told you, “you are my angel”? I think we often expect heavenly intervention to come in the form of a supernatural being or event; yet, often, our prayers are answered in the form of a person, sometimes even a stranger, who reaches out to us with a gesture of kindness or expression of concern.

It is easy to feel daunted by the immensity of a task such as securing world peace or helping a beloved relative or friend with a drinking problem. When it comes to the challenges in our day-to-day living, it is easy to believe that what we have to offer in terms of talents and resources is so small that it can make no significant difference. Yet, if we offer our human limitations and failings to God, we do not offer an inferior gift. God takes what is imperfect and makes it perfect. As we move through the events of our daily lives, we cannot begin to know when a smile or a gesture of kindness may make the difference in someone else’s day. When we help someone, we participate in the redemptive process. I think that is why it feels so good to do a good deed.

The e-mail story about the serviceman ends with this quote: “We are not human beings going through a temporary spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings going through a temporary human experience.”

The next time you see a need, will you be someone’s angel?

A Perfect Prayer for Children

Contributed by Sheila Setter

I was surprised last First Friday to see three mothers, with their young children in tow, congregating in the sacristy after mass. With rosaries in hand, from the smallest to the tallest, we all knelt in prayer to say the rosary. It got me thinking about why the rosary is such a perfect prayer for children.

* First of all, the Hail Mary starts with a birth announcement of the Heavenly kind: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Lk 1). Repeating this prayer 53 times during the course of saying the rosary is a wonderful way to help our own children understand the beauty of God’s gift to us: life. It is also a marvelous way to help our children understand why we cherish them so much!

* Secondly, as we meditate on the each of the decades of the rosary, we are reminded of the gospel readings we hear each week in Sunday mass. It is a particularly exquisite irony that, as we pray to Our Blessed Mother, she is asking us to meditate on the “mysteries”—Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious, and Luminous—that are the events in her Son’s life. Saying the rosary is a wonderful way to teach our children about Jesus.

* Finally, repetition…oftentimes, this is the stumbling block when it comes to the rosary. People find it difficult to say the rosary because it is monotonous. Yet, many educators place validity in the “drill and practice” method, using it to teach children the alphabet and multiplication tables. Repeating the Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, and Oh my Jesus prayers can help children learn their prayers in a very effective way.

While doing a little research on the Internet, I learned some interesting facts about the rosary. I was surprised to discover that, in the earliest times, rosaries were made from rose petals. I can only imagine the beautiful fragrance imparted on the fingers of those who meticulously rolled these petals into little beads and then strung them together into continuous circles of prayers.

The following link provides several suggestions for making rose petal rosaries: Rose Petal Beads. With Advent upon us, this might be a meaningful project to share with your children. It would make a wonderful Christmas gift, and it might just get someone else thinking about saying the rosary.