Translated from the original German appearing in Die Heiligen Tagesengel, 1. Halbajahr, pp. 5-13.
The present books on the holy angels are a teaching and a work of contemplation. Only those who believe in the angels of God, who love them and who want to be guided by them, will find their way through these books.
Just as the Holy Church, in the light of the Holy Ghost, sets before us a saint for every day of the year as an example and special intercessor before God’s Throne, so Heaven lets us look through a humble soul of atonement into the world of holy angels and also sets before us these pure spirits created by the Almighty and All-Wise God, the holy angels, as our great intercessors and helpers.
Every day the merciful God has one or more holy angels stand before His Throne as our special helpers and intercessors. He also places them before our eyes so that we may grow more and more in the knowledge of God, the fear of God and the love of God that is imparted by the holy angels. In the holy angels we recognise the diversity of divine creation as an expression of His boundless omnipotence and eternal wisdom, His unimaginable holiness and incomprehensible mercy. Through the holy angels, our gaze is widened to recognise all of the interrelationships in creation. Through the help of the holy angels in the clear discernment of spirits, our gaze is directed towards the only essential: God.
Mankind will never be able to fully grasp and exhaust the realm of the supernatural world, the holy angels, with our own spiritual and sensory powers. Only in the humble self-knowledge of our own nothingness, in the knowledge that God has created much that we cannot comprehend, in gratitude and in the believing attitude of Mary, Saint Joseph, the Holy Angels and all the Saints, will the grace of the Holy Ghost enlighten us and introduce us to the truth and holiness, the diversity and beauty of the heavenly Hierarchy.
As every man is a personality, so is every angel, but in a much clearer, more distinct and more perfect way. The holy angels already have eternal stature and, in addition to the blessed contemplation of God, have also received the grace of never being able to sin again. We are still on the earthly path and will only reach our final test before the first supernatural step.
Just as we try to recognise God from a thousand sides and again and again we are presented with a completely new, staggeringly large view – and yet it is always the same, one God, and just as we can look at the man from many sides and again and again place one or another characteristic, type, attitude, activity as the reason for which we present the image of this man to ourselves or to others, so it is with the holy angels.
No angel in these present brief descriptions is even approximately truly portrayed in his greatness. This work is similar to the attempt of a clumsy person to draw the image of his beloved brother on a house wall with a crayon, not as a caricature, but in earnest good will. This work is only intended to open the door to an understanding of the holy angels. Through the grace and mercy of God, a path should be indicated to a sincere, loving connection with these great companions given to us by God. For the angel is not a doubtful existence not recognised by the Holy Church.
God surrounds Himself with a threefold creation:
- the spiritual creatures, the angels, who stand above mankind and cannot be comprehended by their lawfulness,
- the material, vegetable and animal creatures below mankind and under his control;
- In the middle between these two is man, with the spirit from above and the substance from below, and set over the earth by God.
Even the angel is assigned to man for service and salvation, because the Son of God descended into this middle and became man Himself – because in this middle He planted the cross of redemption, towards which all created things are ordered – and because from this middle He ascended and still ascends and takes up with Himself to the Father all created things, even angels and man.
Certainly the parable of the prodigal son is aimed at us: man is the last-born, the father’s favourite, the spendthrift, the prodigal and the runaway, who then becomes bitterly poor through his guilt… and the angel is the elder brother who, in his faithfulness and justice, would rather beat this neglected son. But God reveals the right path: the holy angel should be our example, companion and educator, since his knowledge is far greater, clearer and more directed towards God than ours.
Here we get to know the different types of holy angels. From the previous generic term angel, distorted and trivialised by mostly pagan ideas, the diversity of the holy angels is formed according to choirs for the believing and praying person. Each choir can be compared to a large tribe of people, each with its own strong character that clearly distinguishes it from other tribes, and within each choir, which, just like a tribe of people, does not only consist of masses like grains of sand, but has a proper construction, a structure, man gets to know the great plan of salvation in the wisdom and holiness of God in the choir parts, the individual groups. He stands shaken before the great connections of creation, redemption, retrieval, of God and creature, of angel, man and nature.
For a better understanding, a short overview of the structure of this heavenly hierarchy, as it is shown in these books, shall be given.
The world of the holy angels shows itself to us in a great division into three parts; the Fathers and Doctors of the Church call them hierarchies. In these books they are called rings. The first ring comprises the angelic world around the Throne of God in Heaven, the angelic world of adoring being around God. The second ring encompasses the angelic world in the space of the great creation in its administrative tasks. Finally, the third ring spans the space of Christ’s Incarnation and Redemption and includes the choirs of the Virtues, Archangels and Angels and all their assistance for our salvation.
The uppermost ring of Adoration is formed above all by the three supreme choirs, the Seraphim, the Cherubim and the Thrones. Each of these three choirs lies in the closest proximity of God to itself and is fed by a current of grace which flows down from God over them and the choirs below them in the other two rings and corresponds exactly to the character of each choir.
Thus the stream of grace of life meets all the holy angels of life who are assigned in a special way to the idea of creation and covenant – and thus to the Father, and these are:
- in the first ring of Adoration, the third choir of Thrones,
- in the second ring of the Order of God, the sixth choir of Princes,
- in the third ring of the Incarnation, the ninth choir of Angels.
In the same way, the stream of grace of the Word, of power, meets all of the angels of the Word, who are assigned to the Son, the Church, and the Battle, and these are:
- in the first ring of Adoration the second choir of the Cherubim,
- in the second ring of the Order of God the fifth choir of the Powers,
- in the third ring of the Incarnation, the eighth choir of Archangels.
Finally, likewise, the stream of grace of love meets all the holy angels of love who are assigned to the Holy Ghost, to the effect of God’s love, and to the bringing home:
- and that is, in the first ring of Adoration, the first choir of Seraphim,
- in the second ring of the Order of God, the fourth choir of the Dominions, and
- in the third ring of the Incarnation, the seventh choir of the Virtues.
The middle, second ring of the Order of God shows in its three choirs the most varied structure according to the greatness of creation. Each of these three choirs, the Dominions, the Powers and the Princes, is again divided into three parts – into the High Choir, serving the Father, – into the Middle, Sealed Choir, serving the Son in the restrained power of the folly of the Cross, the restrained antagonism – and into the Lower Choir, serving the Holy Ghost and His efficacy. Moreover, in these three choirs, the image of God’s House in creation, represented by four corner pillars, formed of the four strongest angels of each choir part, is shown, and these are the corner pillars: Holy God, – Wise God, – Almighty God, – Righteous God.
The angels of the third ring are completely devoted to salvation and thus above all to the Holy Church, the guardian angelhood, the fight against the infernal adversary, the mediatorship between man and God. The closer they are to man, the clearer their image becomes and the more comprehensible their task.
Just as every man is a unique creation of God and his or her name is his or her proper name, belonging to him or her and characteristic of him or her, every angel is created by God, but endowed by God with much higher spiritual gifts than the human being, and so it is also natural that these holy angels, these personalities, also have a name which characterises just this or that angel.
The names of the angels sound strange and difficult to understand. They were examined in Rome in 1952 and found to be clearly Hebrew. Mostly they summarise in a thematic way what is explained in more detail under the day in question; for example: Alphai – who stands at the beginning (when God said: Let there be light) or Sobroniel – springing well, – Essaim – he holds up both hands (shining).
Our sense of hearing and speech has difficulty with these names, but in connection with the image of the angel, his relationship to God, to his choir and to us, the image of the angel that God wants to form in us is slowly formed with his task by the grace of God. And the more we are allowed to immerse ourselves in this glorious world of the holy angels, created and conceived by God, the more we will be able to experience it. The more we are allowed to delve into this glorious world of the holy angels, created and conceived by God, the sharper will be the image we form of each holy angel. Yes, the more we love them, the more they will become our friends.
The purpose of these books is threefold:
- we learn to recognise the great world of holy angels surrounding us in gratitude to God;
- we are set on a very straight path to God by the holy angel and are educated in our knowledge, will and abilities to a clearer being of God and doing for God;
- we go into battle for God ever more consciously and intimately united with the holy angels.
It is a great joy to get to know the glorious angels more and more in their beauty and task. How the love of God shows itself here again and again in a different image! And how wonderful it is to know that the Almighty and All-Wise God has given us a special helper for every need, for every task, for every sacrifice and for every love. Thus, not only are there 14 helpers of need among the saints, but we also find them among the angels. It is always a joy to get to know a new angel in his beauty, his task and his help for the salvation of the soul, but also for our earthly need. One angel in particular should be mentioned, Saint Lechitiel, the mighty angel of the Mount of Olives, who helped and strengthened the Lord in His greatest need and despair on the Mount of Olives with legions of holy angels. He has also been especially recommended to us in today’s abandonment and confusion in the Holy Church as the help from Heaven and this is shown in his great task.
The knowledge of the holy angels and their help for us depends not only on the grace of God, however, but also upon the extent to which we entrust ourselves to them. Only if we humbly ask the holy angels and call upon them as true servants of God, will they help us; for through their connection with God, their whole longing and only striving is to build in us even here on earth a Throne of God for all eternity. Yes, the measure of their help depends on our trust, our faith and our love for the holy angels. After all, the Lord said to us on earth:
Blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed.
John 20:29
Let us gratefully make use of this great grace and help and ask for their special protection, help and intercession at the Throne of God every day, in every need, in every task and in every danger.
Since Mary is the Queen and Mistress of the Holy Angels, it is a great honour for Her and a rich blessing for us if we also live with Her servants and fight for Her. Just as the holy angels fought in the first battle in Heaven against the evil angels for their Queen Mary, so they will also fight here on earth in the last battle for Mary and win the victory. The great revelations were given to us from Heaven so that we will have a sure light on the path to God in this increasingly dark hour of the Last Days. It is no coincidence, therefore, that especially today, in this blinded, faithless and confused time, it is demanded again and again from Heaven that these revelations must be published for all people and that we should entrust ourselves to the holy angels.
The present books have been given to us by the grace and merciful love of God through a humble soul of atonement. At this point we also want to remember her and give thanks that she gave herself completely to the love of the Triune God and His holy will. Heaven has rewarded her sacrifice, her humility and her love for the Lord with these glorious revelations. Our gratitude to this great servant of Heaven is especially shown in the way that we also fulfil her wish to call and venerate the holy angels as the servants of Mary and of the Triune God and to make this revelation known to all people.
So let the publication of these books and their wide distribution be a sign of thanksgiving to the Triune God, to Mary, Queen of the Holy Angels, and to the Holy Angels, our brothers and fellow servants before God.
11 For he hath given his angels charge over thee; to keep thee in all thy ways. 12 In their hands they shall bear thee up: lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Psalm 90:11-12