| VI. Choir | 7 August |
|---|---|
| Prince of rocks and magnets | Cajetan, Afra |
Leaning slightly forward, he stands before God’s Throne as if weighed down by a burden… but he just listens. He listens to the knocking of so many hearts that he has touched, like a herald or messenger, with his long staff. He, the prince of all things magnetic, the angel of eternal restlessness toward God, has awakened them. He has drawn them close to God through his magnetic power. He has made their hearts restless, so that they pull and push against themselves, and they do not even know why. They find their rest only in God. This eternally young angel with a millenias-old longing in his features is
Saint Ophel.
God has placed him as prince over great areas of power, that he may administer them. He administers not only groups of stars in the vast firmament—every star has its purpose before God and is guided by God’s angels—but he also has to administer all magnetic forces as building materials of the earth. This is probably a large and often unexplored area, because God has sealed this angel. His power is still restrained and tamed for the benefit of mankind. It will only become terrifying in the end times when these mighty shackles are broken. Then one star will probably be attracted to another with magnetic force and smash against it. Then the restlessness towards God, which this angel has to guard, will also emerge from its timidity. Souls of fire will be born: those who not only allow themselves to be drawn by God and His angels, but who throw themselves, unconditionally and voluntarily, into the love of God and can no longer be torn from the Heart of God by any torment of the End Times.
Saint Ophel is placed not only above all magnetic things, but above all rock in general. How many cathedrals speak of this eternal restlessness towards God, this unquenchable longing of man? How many marvellous stones give expression to this divine attraction! Most mysteriously, the gravestones are a symbol of the fact that even the departed are still waiting for the magnetic rod of Saint Ophel, which will knock on their stone in haste: “Wake up!“, for all the bodies of the deceased will rise again full of life and restlessness according to the Word of God and will appear before God’s Judgement Seat on the Last Day. Saint Ophel is always the reminder that everything is wandering, drawn by the One: God. As firm as the stones are, restlessness becomes their master, from the quiet hollowing out by the restless spring to the atomic bomb of restless people. “My heart is always restless until it rests in you, O God!”
Prayer: Great, holy Prince of Angels, Saint Ophel, touch my heart too, that it may never cease to beat and long for God until it rests in Him. Amen.