“Just ignore her talk about angels and everything. She is sort of weird.” That is the only comment about angels I remember hearing as a child; I sort of lumped angels together with fairies and leprechauns. Culturally depicted, angels are chubby faced winged figures with the bow and arrows, or pretty glass figurines for your home décor, or maybe an adorable little winged child in the Christmas pageant who stumbles over his line that starts with "Hark."

How could any of those images help me spiritually?

Like many, I discounted anything that I didn’t understand. Mysteries were for novels, not my spiritual life. And yet we can grow so much when we open ourselves to the fullness of the faith in all its complexities.

In today’s Scripture readings alone, we see a bit of the varied roles played by angels. We have Saint Michael and his angels as they battle in Revelations, the angels witness our praise in the Psalms, they do “His work” in the responsorial, and in the Gospel, we curiously hear Jesus speak that the angels ascend and descend on the Son of God.

Angels are not fairytale creatures or holiday accouterments. They are a diverse group of spiritual beings created intentionally for purpose. They enlighten, guide, and protect us. Angels are important enough to get two special days in our church calendar: today, which is the Feast Day of the Archangels, and Oct 2nd, the Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels. Perhaps you can spend a little time today meditating on these spiritual beings and the invisible role they play to bring glory to God. Let us all give thanks that we have such supernatural friends on our side.

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