Have you ever encountered an Angel?
Have you ever heard voices or saw animals or “images” that seemed to just show up and then immediately disappear after offering guidance or direction?
During this past Christmas Season while I was reflecting on the significant role that the Angels played in the Nativity story, I was inspired to reflect on and appreciate the impact that Angels have had on my own life.
For me, Angels are VERY real and VERY important!
The Greek word “angellos” means messenger, and it was this aspect of these spiritual beings that I was first introduced to by my Mother. Growing up in the 1950s, she would tell me stories about family members who had loved ones that were killed during World War II. In her stories (which took place long before cell phones and text messages were invented), she would share with me numerous narratives where Angels would show up in a mother’s dream and deliver messages from their dying sons. And still today, when I imagine being the mother whose son was killed on a faraway battlefield, I can’t help but think that these women must have spent the rest of their lives honoring, remembering and appreciating these Divine Messengers. Today, as I ponder the presence of Angels in my own life, I vividly recall several specific moments where Angels were vital messengers. Two of these experiences involved actual life and death events, and the others were moments when my life was specifically guided to certain locations. In all of these occurrences, I was left with very clear and penetrating words that are still deeply ingrained in my mind.
On one specific occasion, the Messenger appeared to have a human form and then seemed to “evaporate” immediately after helping me out of a difficult situation. (I proceeded to run after them to say thank you, but they literally seemed to vanish into thin air.)
The concept of Angels has been studied throughout history. In the 13th Century, Thomas Aquinas wrote “to pretend that angels do not exist because we cannot see them, is like pretending that we never sleep because we have never seen ourselves asleep.” Fast forward to our modern times and in his book “The Tao of Thomas Aquinas” Matthew Fox uses concepts from Particle Physics to explain the movement of Angels as Light Beings. Although the basic notion of Angels appearing as Light is centuries old, Fox uses our current understanding of Light as massless photons to explain both the movement and formlessness of these Spiritual Beings. Here he makes the case that light is made up of photons, and photons are massless and travel at the speed of light; therefore Angels could be massless and be able to travel at the speed of light! But rather than try to explain, understand or describe the ways and workings of these Mystical Messengers, I would rather take the time to express both my awe and respect for these remarkable Agents of God.
Here I offer my deepest gratitude for the many times that they have guided and protected my own life and for all of their seen and unseen work throughout all of Creation. And finally, in the words of Paulo Coelho “No, I never saw an Angel, but it is irrelevant whether I saw one or not. I feel their presence around me.”