Ангел

Our Almighty Creator God is strong to protect us by Himself and without angelic guards being assigned to us, beloved listeners! Our Lord is strong in Himself, without requiring anyone’s help, to manage our lives, just as He Himself created us without the help of Angels. He is strong, I say, to preserve us Himself, as He Himself contains all creation, visible and invisible, sensual and spiritual. However, God deigned, according to His unsearchable advice, incomprehensible wisdom and infinite reason, to create with His omnipotent power the things above and below, Angels and people, and to establish orderly order in all His creation, in the manifestation of God's power and God's wisdom, and so that we glorify Him, our Creator, exclaiming along with the psalmist: “Great is our Lord and His power is great, and His understanding is incomprehensible. How majestic are Your works, O Lord! You have created everything with wisdom” (Ps. 146:5, 103:24). Having created the entire universe, visible and invisible, sensual and spiritual, the All-Wise Creator placed it in three great places, as if in three kingdoms: the highest, the lowest and the middle. The highest place is the highest heaven, called the heaven of heavens. It is also the Throne of God, the place of His Divine glory, unapproachable light, where the King of kings and Lord of lords Himself reigns: “Our God lives on high and looks upon the humble” (Ps. 113:5–6). The lowest place is the earth that the Lord gave people to inhabit, according to the Scripture: “The highest heaven is to the Lord, and the earth He gave to the sons of men” (Ps. 113:24) - and on which he made man king, crowning him with glory and honor and subduing everything to him. The middle place is the heaven, which is under the highest heaven. He gave it to the holy Angels, creating them to reign forever in His grace, appointing them as Authorities, Principalities, Dominions and other high ranks. Having thus arranged the entire universe in these three places, our Lord established such an order so that the middle place was ruled by the highest and the lowest by the middle, that is, God Himself deigned to rule the Angels, and commanded the Angels to rule and keep people: “He will command His angels about you - to keep you in all your ways” (Ps. 90:11). What do they control, what do the holy Angels do in us, being mediators between God and us and protecting us? How many good deeds, how many necessary things they do for us both for the soul and for the body, being present around us day and night and in every place - this is impossible to say or count! (2) They [Our Guardian Angels] bring our prayers, performed with contrition of heart, before the glory of the Most High God, to His Divine Throne, as St. John testifies in the Apocalypse, saying: “And another Angel came and stood before the altar, holding a golden censer; and a great deal of incense was given to him, so that with the prayers of all the saints he would place it on the golden altar, which was in front of the throne. And the smoke of incense ascended with the prayers of the saints from the hand of an angel before God” (Rev. 8:3–4). From this we can see that the holy Angels lift up our prayers to God and make them known to all other heavenly ranks who stand before God... Our Holy Guardian Angels remain with us relentlessly in our paths, invisibly accompany us, protecting us in all our paths at the behest of the Lover of God, in which His great and ineffable love and mercy is manifested for us, His unworthy servants, among many others. the ineffable blessings that are constantly shown to us, and from the fact that He commanded His Angels to guard us in all our ways. To know that our Lord loves us, if he has such care for us that he protects us with His holy Angels, “so that by their army, guarded and instructed, we may achieve salvation” 1 . Worthy guardians are assigned to worthy things. To know, we are also worthy in the eyes of our Creator, if He has assigned to us such worthy guardians, bodiless and immortal spirits, inhabitants of the heavenly city, standing before the Throne of God. Guardian guardians are usually assigned to small children to carry them in their arms. We are small in the eyes of our Master, lower than the Angels (Ps. 8:6), but we are His beloved children: “he gave us power to become children of God” (John 1:12); “And I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. 6:18). And like little children, He assigned us mentors and guardians—holy angels—to carry us in their arms: “They will take you in their arms, so that you do not dash your foot against a stone” (Ps. 90:12). Angels keep us in our ways, if only we “go for good,” as Tobias said to the son, if we do not go to any evil, if we do not go to steal or anger God, if we go for a good deed, with a good intention (2). How many times does the invisible enemy want to devour us with his gaping lips! “Behold, he walks, our adversary the devil... like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour,” as the apostle says (1 Pet. 5:8), and he would have swallowed him up if the Guardian Angel had not stopped his destructive lips (2). Our Holy Guardian Angels care not only about our spiritual salvation, but also about our physical health, invent medicine for us and heal us (2). In addition to the holy Archangel Michael, there are six highest heavenly spirits of angelic nature, six archangels venerable and worshipful of the Archangel Michael, closest to all the ranks of heaven standing before God in His unapproachable glory. Together with these six, Saint Michael is the seventh, and in the personal septennial calculation he is the first. There is news about these seven highest Angels in the Revelation of St. John the Theologian, in chapter one, where the following is said: “Grace to you and peace from Him who is and was and is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before His throne” (Rev. 1:4). And again: “I saw seven angels who stood before God” (Rev. 8:2). In the book of Tobi, one of them says: “I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels who stand before the Lord” (Tob. 12:15). These seven Angels by name and order in their rank are counted as follows: Each of them has its own special highest service with the Lord God. Briefly, these ministries are expressed as follows: Michael is a servant of Divine glory, guardian and defender of the honor of God. Gabriel is the servant of the Divine fortress, the revealer of the hidden mysteries of God. Raphael is a minister of Divine healing, miraculously poured out from above on the weak nature. Uriel is a servant of Divine love, light and fire, illuminating with the knowledge of God and igniting human hearts with Divine love. Salafiel is a minister of Divine prayers, always praying to God for the human race, instructing people in fervent, God-thought and tender prayer and inciting them to this. Jehudiel is a minister of Divine praises and confessions, an assistant in labors and exploits, strengthening those who work in something for the glory of the name of the Lord, interceding and preparing a reward for them from God. Barachiel is a minister of Divine blessings and gifts sent to people by the grace of God. Such are the most significant ministries of the seven highest Angels and Archangels. These seven archangels closest to the greatness of God rule, by the command of God, all the heavenly ranks and hierarchies. Let us not be afraid of the seven-armed demonic legion and its seven evil princes, having as protectors the seven archangels with all the Heavenly Powers. There is greater strength with us than with our adversaries (2). Q: When did God create the Angels, before all ages? A: No, He alone, by His nature, remained uncreated before all ages, while the Angels were created by Him at a certain time. Q: Who are Angels and how do we understand them? A: Angels are disembodied, invisible, sinless spirits, not existing by themselves, but created by God’s grace before any other creation, moving from place to place in the twinkling of an eye. Q: Why were Angels created? A: Angels were created so that they sing the glory of God and serve Him, and also so that they serve people in this world and are the guardians of kingdoms, cities, places, people and every creature. Q: How many ranks are they divided into? A: Into three, and each rank, in addition, is divided into three more ranks, somehow: in the first - Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim; in the second - Power, Dominance and Strength; in the third - Angels, Archangels and Principalities. A: As I already said, they are sinless, but not by themselves, but by the grace of God, since they did not agree to resist God together with the Lucifer - the light-bearer, therefore they have this grace from God, and not by their nature. Q: Who is a light bearer? A: The Light-Bearer was the noblest and foremost Angel, who, being ungrateful to God for His benefits, preferred love to the creation, loving himself more than the Creator, i.e. God, wanted to be like Him and became proud, for which he and his like-minded people were cast out from heaven to hell, deprived of their natural beauty, and, however, the angelic nature remained with him, and from a light-bearer he turned into a dark demon and an angel of all uncleanness, the inventor of lawlessness, the enemy of God and people. Q: Can this angel of darkness repent in view of the fact that God is long-suffering and abounding in mercy, will not be angry to the end and will not be indignant forever (Ps. 102:8-9)? A: The grace of God is never at enmity if it sees someone repentant, but since this grace of repentance was given only to man for the sake of the incarnate Christ, and was not given to the angel of darkness, then in the absence of grace he cannot repent. Q: Why is the grace of repentance given to man, but not to the angel of darkness? A: The grace of repentance was given to man because he sinned not on his own, but at the instigation of the enemy, and the devil sinned spontaneously, without any other instigation, and, moreover, in comparison with man, he had higher talents and qualities. Q: Since when did Angels become so established in grace that they can no longer sin? A: As I said, from the time when they did not agree with the light-bearer, from whom grace was taken away, but was given to them. Q: Weren’t the Angels peacemakers, i.e. creators of heaven, earth and the whole world? A: I said that the Creator of everything is God, and Angels are the servants of the Lord. True, there were heretics who called the Angels creators, but this heresy, together with its followers, has long been cursed (3). In the morning, be a Seraphim in prayer, a Cherub in deeds, an Angel in your walk (3). You might be interested in: