September's angels

The angels keep their ancient places-

Turn but a stone and start a wing!

Those lines come from Francis Thompson's poem "The Kingdom of God," in which he describes how ordinary things are suffused with grace, how the Holy permeates everything. Jesus might just as well be walking on the local river as on the Sea of Galilee, he suggests -- and angels are everywhere!

At the end of next month, on September 29, is Michaelmas, also known as the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels. It's a day that can be a lot of fun to celebrate with children. Over the next weeks, I'll be posting some ideas for crafts, games, music, and food connected with angels that you can do at home to celebrate the season.

Today I'll give some background -- and encourage you to consider reading the picture book that my niece, Sage Stossel, and I did together and that is (as of Aug. 16) available for preorder from the publisher Forward Movement. (The publisher writes: "Season of Angels explores the wonder of God's angels as protectors and messengers. Tobias makes a perilous journey to a faraway city on an important errand for his father. The angel Raphael joins Tobias and keeps him safe on his way.") 

The story begins, "September is the season of angels....." 

Here's some background about angels (this is more for the grown-ups):

Angelic protection: In the late 19th Century, the Rev. Charles Grafton recommended that a child's introduction to God begin with talk about angels, especially their own Guardian Angel. Angels, he writes, are appointed to watch over and guard and protect children. St. Basil writes, "It is a teaching of Moses that every believer has an Angel to guide him [or her] as a teacher and a shepherd." There is a legend stemming from Matthew 18:10 that the Guardian Angels of children always stand close to God because what they do is so important. By introducing children to the angelic protection which surrounds them, parents can give them a deep sense of God's personal, individual love and concern.

Angels as messengers: Our word "angel" comes from the Greek aggelos, translated from the Hebrew mal'akh, meaning "messenger."' Brother John Mathis, S.S.J.E., pointed out, "Now, messengers don't just boot around on their own; they come from a source and are aimed at a target." They come from God, sometimes with specific messages for specific people, sometimes simply with the message of love. Scholars note that as messengers, angels may appear as strangers; we often don't recognize them, just as the boy Tobias simply accepts Raphael as a traveling companion without recognizing that he is an angel. Angelic messages can come through other people and through the natural world; children, in their openness to both worlds, can even serve as angelic messengers to the adult world.

Named angels:  Angels appear in about half the books of the Bible and are mentioned over 300 times. Of the named archangels, Michael is the leader; he is referred to as the angel of righteousness and is noted for his mercy. The Midrash Rabba credits Michael with writing Psalm 85, and tradition says that Michael is recognized by Sarah as one of the "men" who predict Isaac's birth--as well as being the angel who later stays Abraham's hand as he prepares to slay Isaac. Mystical writers equate Michael with the Holy Spirit in Christian understanding and the Shekinah, or Presence if God, in Jewish teachings. Besides being a warrior angel, Michael is named the benevolent angel of death, for it is Michael who weighs the souls of the dead.

Gabriel is the heavenly messenger, a special angel of the Christ, appearing, for example, to Zachariah and to Mary to announce the births of John and Jesus. Islamic tradition sees Gabriel as the 10th and final archangel, the one who rules over the human sphere and all that lies below it; as such he is called the Angel of Humanity. Gabriel is also noted for his courage.

Raphael appears only in the Book of Tobit, and it is his story that’s told in Season of Angels (which takes a few liberties with the text in order to emphasize the loving companionship and protection provided to the anxious young Tobias by the Archangel Raphael). Raphael is especially noted for the quality of love.

The Eastern Church says that since the Christ always existed, any appearance of angels in Hebrew Scripture should be seen as partial manifestations of Christ. This recognition of Christ as both preexistent and contained within angelic visitors is echoed by two Native Americans from the land of the Anishnabe who name Christ as "with us through our entire history"--even before they knew his Name--as "an angel or a guardian spirit."

What all this means is that each child's Guardian Angel contains an element of Christ.

Looking ahead to the next weeks: games, music, food, and fun to help children prepare to celebrate this Feast of Angels in late September! (with a break, of course, for a new green goblin story on Sept. 9)