| IV. Choir | 18 January |
|---|---|
| Gate of the Cornerstones | Octave of World Prayer begins |
It is written in the Holy Scriptures, (Revelation 21:9-22), that one of the seven angels who have the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came to the Holy Apostle John and said, “Come, I will show you the Bride of the Lamb!” And he took him to a great and high mountain, (that is, he opened his eyes to what he wanted to show him), and showed him the holy city of Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, and with the glory of God upon it. “It has a great and high wall with twelve tribes of Israel. And the wall of the city has twelve foundation stones, and on them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb…”
The angel whom God’s goodness sets before us today as our intercessor is one of the twelve angels on the twelve gates of the New Jerusalem. He is
Saint Moriel,
the first of the twelve. Together with his eleven brothers he is an angel of love from the choir part of the High Dominions. When, after the great judgement, the multitudes of the redeemed will enter the eternal home, represented in the image of the city of God, the New Jerusalem, twelve gates will open for them and twelve angels of love will spread their arms to receive the blessed homecomers.
Saint Moriel stands above the gate which the holy angels call the Gate of the Cornerstones and through which the Holy Apostle Peter will once enter with his own for the New Covenant, with those who, like him, represented rocks for the Church on which she could stand in the storms of time. That is why Saint Moriel looks like a rock himself, so impregnably strong. He stands on a cornerstone as if he had grown together with it, and his hand holds up the building of the Holy Church. The people who enter here have stood like rocks for the teachings of Christ; they have built up and supported and adorned the Holy Church like pillars. Even in Heaven, they will always remain ornaments of the kingdom of God, and for all eternity.
Prayer: O Mary, of whom it is said above this gate: “Thou Tower of David, Thou Queen of Apostles, Thou Mother of the Holy Church,” let us, by the hand of the holy angels, also become firm pillars of the Holy Church, that we may carry and defend her on our shoulders so that she may one day carry us into eternal blessedness. Amen.