| V. Choir | 2 August |
|---|---|
| Angel of Zeal for God | Alphonsus Ligouri |
He is known as The one with the glowing arrow in his breast and, in the row of the Seven Brothers of the Soul, he stands between the sower who has to tread the seed into the ground—Saint Aljoim—and the worshipper from the depths—Saint Cheloim.
He is powerful to look at because he presses both his hands, fists clenched, against his heart, as if he wanted to tear it out and lay it at the Lord’s Feet. With one foot he treads on an evil beast, a demon: Varina—the serpent—of which one can hardly tell if it resembles a man or a polyp. It is the demon of weakness of will, addictions, weariness and disgust, which the angel of this day,
Saint Thaamim,
kicks to the ground. The Seven Brothers of the Soul, to whom Saint Thaamim belongs, stand in the centre of the Choir of Powers, next to Saint Sederim, the angel of contradiction or contrariness. The entire V Choir of Powers is actually what its name implies: violent.
These angels carry the will of God out into creation. The first third, the High Powers, carry it in the statics of the concentration of God’s will into a covenant with the people of the Old and New Covenants (I will make a covenant with them and never remember their sins). The Middle or Sealed Powers carry the will of God into mankind for the salvation of souls, and their power is restrained until the days of the end times, when they will break their chains in seven-fold power and intervene in the final battle of the spirits. The Lower or Circulating Powers carry the spiritualised power of the Will of the Spirit to the harmonious course of the whole of creation and at the same time already bring man’s answer, his will, up from the depths of the earth towards God.
Saint Thaamim and his brothers—the Seven Brothers of the Soul—use all their power to break man’s soul out of the enemy’s grip, to beat it out of the stalk of its habits and indifferent surroundings, to bind it for God, to sink it into the soil of humility and God’s hidden work on the soul, to purify it for God and to bring its worship to the greatest possible depth of nothingness before God until it reaches a completely purified and clear Yes, as spoken by Mary.
Saint Thaamim burns out the heart for God. He no longer accepts anything indifferent, no dross of old habitual sins, no weariness and comfort of the heart. He kicks this creeping, wimpish and effeminate temptation of evil to the ground and makes the soul feel the Lord’s heartache and a longing so great that the fire in the soul can never be quenched.
Prayer: Wake me up, O Lord, before it is too late. Strike me, whilst I can still be moulded by You! Let my heart also be pierced by the arrow of zeal for Your honour, of longing for You, and only heal me of this wound in eternity! Amen.