| VI. Choir | 2 October |
|---|---|
| “The faithful follower” | Feast of the Guardian Angels |
We have much to thank this good angel for. Into his silent and gracious hand, which he is holding out to the Lord today, Almighty God has placed a seed: the ministry of the guardian angel.
“Bless the Lord, all ye his angels: you that are mighty in strength, and execute his word, hearkening to the voice of his orders.” Psalm 102:20.
When a guardian angel is called by the Lord, that is, as soon as one of the millions of angels is called by the Lord to the office of guardian angel, he rushes with lightning speed to the Throne of the Most High. From there he takes over the command and instruction. Then he turns to his Queen. As She is the mother of the living, now that he is to become the brother of a human being, She also becomes his mother.
Before Her Eyes, he lays aside everything that has adorned him until now: all of his splendour and power. He kneels down in the simple working clothes that all guardian angels have in common. Only his essence, his task, remains to him in the attenuated degree of an angel of the IXth choir. The Mother then accepts him and he may pass through Her… who stands above the earth and above heaven and above all creatures… as through a cathedral… as through the parental home.
And now he looks with different eyes towards his brother, for whom the Lord bled to death on the Cross. He no longer looks down to man. His blessedness, which remains unchanged, has now taken on a new, wonderful colour. It is as if he had somehow become a mother. He may now experience in himself the sacrifice which an angel would not otherwise experience. Thus, the guardian angel ministry, which was opened up to the angels after their trial, is the completion. In this ministry of their becoming close to man, they experience the accompaniment to the Lord’s work of redemption upon earth.
Saint Ezekiel,
the High Prince, stands in his position together with the Archangel-Prince Saint Jophiel. Saint Jophiel is the angel of depth and inwardness, the Ploughman and the angel of repentance and atonement. Saint Ezekiel is the angel of statics, determination and steadfastness. In the wonderfully harmonious structure of the choir section of the High Princes, one angel gives colour and form to the second through his own being. Thus, Saint Jophiel gives his brother Saint Ezekiel a great longing for God, the will to atone and the striving for inwardness. Saint Ezekiel, however, gives his brother Saint Jophiel, statics in the depths, firmness of purpose when ploughing, and a strong, steady hand. Both together are the violet in the seven-coloured rainbow of the Queen, which leans towards the blue of loyalty on the one hand and the red of devotion on the other. They are the chord of longing and simplicity, which we identify as A-minor.
Saint Jophiel’s symbol is the shell with the sound of the sea, which is both an image of longing for God and an image of wandering towards God. Saint Ezekiel, however, carries the one denarius as a symbol, because only one thing is necessary: God… and one is our reward: God. Today, this one denarius is the seed that Saint Ezekiel holds out to the Lord. Thus, in the unspeakable love of God, the guardian angel ministry becomes the one denarius that every angel—whether in the first or the last hour—can obtain and in which the Lord Himself hides… He, the only true reward of all His own.
Prayer: Great benevolent friend and angel with the one denarius, Saint Ezekiel, direct our lives according to this one principle ‘God alone is sufficient!’, and let us become guardian angels for all around us. Amen.