| VII. Choir | 29 July |
|---|---|
| Angel of the prudence of love | Martha, Beatrix |
Love is always new. It can never be exhausted or measured. The song of love will never fall silent as long as there is a tabernacle on earth, as long as there is a cross on earth, as long as Our Lady walks this earth, together with Her angels and Her children as the Mother of the Way to the eternal home.
The angels of love are so numerous that it is impossible to keep track of them. They are in every choir. They are everywhere in Heaven and on Earth… for the love of God is also everywhere. Here it shines and there it rewards; here it warns and there it burns; here it brings a cross and there it brings home. Again and again, other angels are at the service of God’s love; the Lord has no shortage of lightning-fast, joyful servants.
One such servant of the Lord stands here today, an angel of love from the Choir of Virtues, the seventh of the nine choirs of angels. He bears the prudence of love. It is
Saint Phanael.
The sound of this name already appears once in the Holy Scriptures, where we are told how the young Jacob wrestled with the angel. He called this passage Phanael, encounter with God. That is how it is; we encounter God in the angel. We encounter the love of God, which is given to us as the prudence of love, as the wisdom of love.
The Lord himself explains this prudence of love to us in the parable of the ten wise virgins. They, too, were full of love; they waited in love. Only half of these virgins were also wise, however, thinking beyond the moment… and they were right to do so. God also asks more of us when he gives us grace. Believing, hoping, loving, trusting, obeying—other believers can do this too, even the pagans. Our faith, our trust, our hope, our love and our obedience must be greater. They should only begin where those of the pagans and unbelievers end, so we must do more than they do. Our faith becomes holy when we believe for God’s sake what He wants us to believe. Our hope becomes holy when we hope for everything from God for His own sake, clinging only to God. Our love becomes holy when we love without waiting for an answer or reward or comfort. Our obedience becomes holy when it goes beyond human understanding. This is what the prudence of love teaches us… and such holy prudence is truly a virtue. Whoever possesses it also has power over the love of the Lord, to whom the Lord will never say: “Friend, I do not know you!”
Prayer: Great holy Angel of the prudence of love, Saint Phanael, teach us the holy prudence of love, full of clear planning and orderly measure, so that when God calls us, He will find us watching. Amen.