| VI. Choir | 28 July |
|---|---|
| Guardian of Jerusalem (Rome) | Victor, Innocent |
Et homo factus est… The Christian prays these words daily in the Credo without trembling… but no angel can do this. If anything shakes an angel to the core, it is the mystery of the Incarnation of his Lord and God with all the dishonour that has been inflicted on the Redeemer ever since. O Majesty of God, which no angel can bear unveiled and which out of love in divine contrariness dis-empowers itself to the point of will-less Bread and to the point of helplessness on the stake of shame of the Cross! How grateful the angel is to his Lord that in this depth of the Incarnation He chose the Queen of Angels, the only valid Answer of creation to the Creator, the most exquisite and purest of all creatures, Mary, as His Mother!
Every place where the Lord dwelt on earth is sacred to the angels. Among the Silent Princes, the Guardian Angels of the Holy Church, the ministry of looking after the holy places has been entrusted to:
Saint Ursalim,
the thirteenth of the twenty-four. Saint Ursalim, the Prince of the Hidden Care of the Holy Places, is one of the strangest angels. He is apparently blind: he does not see his task. What prompted the angel to voluntarily offer the sense of sight to his Creator as a ransom for the dishonour inflicted on the holy places will remain a mystery between the loving God and the loving angel until the end of days.
Nevertheless, the gigantic, Silent Prince fulfills his task. He carries a bowl full of earth adapted to his size and strength. At his feet he has an immense royal mantle before which he kneels in worship. In the bowl is all the earth that has ever been mixed with Christ’s Blood—how many blasphemies have been committed against Christ’s Blood since Golgotha! This earth is at the same time a symbol for all the places upon which Our Lord set Foot… it is a symbol for all the Blood of the Corpus Christi Mysticum that flowed to earth and for all the sanctified earth. All relics are under the protection of this angel.
Wherever the Body of the Lord is outside the Tabernacle Shrines, an angel of Saint Ursalim is appointed as guardian and worshipper. An angel kneels and prays with all his fervour even at the sacred figures in the Bread and Wine that have been desecrated by Satan’s servants. The angels of Saint Ursalim collect this desecrated Body of the Lord and it is joined splinter by splinter to this huge royal mantle, which is handed over to the Lord, the Judge of all creatures, until the end of time… the most terrible accusation against all of those who have desecrated the word: et homo factus est… in such a horrible way.
Prayer: Great, Holy Angel, Saint Ursalim, we humbly beseech Thee, grant us the right knowledge and ardent desire to protect God always and everywhere from the hands of the enemy, and to praise and glorify Him with all our hearts in all holy places and sanctified objects. Amen.