I AM SENDING AN ANGEL BEFORE YOU

See, I am sending an angel before you,

to guard you on the way

and bring you to the place I have prepared.

Be attentive to him and heed his voice.

My authority resides in him.

Exodus 23:20-23

I have not given much thought about angels until today. What I only know of before is Gabriel who was sent by God to deliver the message to our Blessed Mother Mary. Who really is Gabriel?
Gabriel (Standard Hebrew Gavriel, Latin Gabrielus, Tiberian Hebrew Garîēl, Arabic Jibrīl or Jibrail,) is an angel who is thought to serve as a messenger from God ("angel" literally translates to "messenger" from the Koine Greek; an "arch" angel is a "primary" or "chief" messenger).

In the

Catholic Tradition (not the Bible), he is known as one of the archangels. In Biblical tradition, he is sometimes regarded as the angel of death or one of God's messengers. He first appears in the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible. He is also referred to as the "Left Hand of God and the embodiment of the Holy Spirit". Christians and Muslims believe him to have foretold the births of John the Baptist and Jesus to Zacharias and the Virgin Mary respectively. In Islam, Gabriel is one of God's chief messengers but other above-mentioned titles are not given to him (for example the angel of death is Azrael). He is called the chief of the four favoured angels and the spirit of truth, and in some views Gabriel is the same person as the Holy Spirit. Gabriel also finds mention in the writings of the Bahá'í Faith, most notably in Bahá'u'lláh's mystical work The Seven Valleys.

Muslims believe he was the medium through which God revealed the Qur'an to Muhammad. The Talmud described him as the only angel who can speak Syriac and Chaldee. In Abrahamic religions,Then there is our defender, Michael the Archangel who defeated Lucifer in battle.
Michael (Hebrew Micha'el or Mîkhā’ēl; Greek: Mikhaíl; Latin: Michael or Míchaël; Arabic: Mikha'il) is the archangel mentioned in the Book of Revelation 12:7; in the Old Testament Michael is mentioned by name in the Persian context of the post-Exilic Book of Daniel. He is generally presented as the field commander of the Army of God.

There Michael appears as "one of the chief princes" (Daniel 10:13) who in Daniel's vision comes to the angel Gabriel's aid in his contest with the angel of Persia, and is also described there as the advocate of Israel and "great prince who stands up for the children of your (Daniel's) people" (Daniel 10:21, 12:1).

The Talmudic tradition rendered his name as meaning "who is like El (God)(but literally "El's Likeness")" (compare the late prophet Micah), but according to Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish (AD 230–270), all the specific names for the angels were brought back by the Jews from Babylon, and many modern commentators would agree.

Michael is one of the principal angels in Abrahamic tradition; his name was said to have been the war-cry of the angels in the battle fought in heaven against Satan and his followers. Much of the late Midrashic detail about Michael was transmitted to Christian legend through the Book of Enoch, whence it was taken up and further elaborated.
Roman Catholics refer to him as Saint Michael the Archangel and also simply as Saint Michael ("Saint" is a title meaning "holy", and is not meant to indicate that Michael is a human soul in heaven). Police officers and soldiers, particularly paratroopers, regard him as their patron saint.How about Raphael?
Raphael (Standard Hebrew, "God has healed", "God Heals", "God, Please Heal", and many other combinations of the two words, Arabic: Israfil, ) is the name of an archangel of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, who performs all manner of healing. The Hebrew word for a doctor of medicine is Rophe connected to the same root word as Raphael.

The angels mentioned in the older books of the

Hebrew Bible are without names. Indeed, Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish of Tiberias (230-270 A.D.), asserted that all the specific names for the angels were brought back by the Jews from Babylon, and modern commentators would tend to agree.

Of seven archangels in the

angelology of post-Exilic Judaism, only Michael, mentioned as archangel (Daniel 12:1) and Gabriel are mentioned by name in the scriptures that came to be accepted as canonical by all Christians.

Raphael is mentioned by name in the Book of Tobit, which is accepted as canonical by Catholics and Orthodox. Four others, however, are named in the 2nd century BC Book of Enoch (chapter xxi): Uriel, Raguel, Sariel, and Jarahmeel.

What strikes me as very revealing is our wide perception that Cupid is also an angel. In popular culture Cupid is frequently shown shooting his bow to inspire romantic love and sex, often as an icon of Valentine's Day. Is he really an angel as what we have perceived him to be?
Cupid - In Roman mythology, Cupid (Latin cupido) or Eros is not an angel but a god of erotic love and sex. He is equated with the Greek god Eros, and another one of his Latin names Amor (cognate with Kama).

There are many differing stories about Cupid's parentage. Cicero provides three different lineages: son of Mercury (Hermes) and Diana (Artemis), son of Mercury and Venus (Aphrodite), and son of Mars (Ares in Greek mythology) and Venus. Plato mentions two of these, and Hesiod's Theogony, the most ancient Greek theoography, says that Cupid was created coevally with sex,Chaos and the earth. Throughout ancient mythological writing, there appear to be either two Cupids or two sides to the figure of Cupid (sex). One is the son of Jupiter (Zeus) and Venus.

He is a lively youth who delights in pranks and spreading love. The other is a son of Nyx and Erebus, known for riotous debauchery.
In all of these, I believe that the Lord sends angels before us to guard us against any form of harm. They also serve as God’s messenger to his people and as instruments to deliver His graces. Even as a child, God already sent angels for each and every one of us. They are those soft whispering voices that inspire our good side, l and to fight for what is right.

ANGELS IN INDIANA

"See that you do not despise one

of these little ones, for I say to you

that their angels in heaven

always look upon the face

of my heavenly Father.”

MATTHEW 18-10

A Mother's Story . . .
In September 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and just 75 cents in my pocket. Their father was gone. The boys ranged from three months to seven years; their sister was two. Their Dad had never been much more than a presence they feared.Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would scramble to hide under their beds. He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries.Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no food either.If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, I certainly knew nothing about it.

I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new and then put on my best homemade dress, loaded them into the rusty old 51 Chevy and drove off to find a job.The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town. No luck.The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried to convince whomever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything. I had to have a job.Still no luck.

The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in that had been converted to a truck stop. It was called the Big Wheel.An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the window from time to time at all those kids. She needed someone on the graveyard shift, 11 at night until seven in the morning. She paid 65 cents an hour, and I could start that night.

I raced home and called the teenager down the street that baby-sat for people. I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night. She could arrive with her pajamas on and the kids would already be asleep. This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal.

That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers, we all thanked God for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big Wheel.When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money--fully half of what I averaged every night. As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage.The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every morning before I could go home.

One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires! There was no note, no nothing, just those beautiful brand new tires. Had angels taken up residence in Indiana ? I wondered.

I made a deal with the local service station. In exchange for his mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office. I remember it took me a lot longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires.I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn't enough. Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids.I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some old toys. Then hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to deliver on Christmas morning. Clothes were a worry too. I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair.

On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. These were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe.A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were dropping nickels in the pinball machine. The regulars all just sat around and talked through the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the sun came up.

When it was time for me to go home at seven o'clock on Christmas morning, to my amazement, my old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes. I quickly opened the driver's side door, crawled inside and knee led in the front facing the back seat.Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box. Inside was whole case of little blue jeans, sizes 2-10! I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans. Then I peeked inside some of the other boxes. There was candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries.There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes. There was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was hole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items. And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll.As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on the most amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude. And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning.

Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop....

THE POWER OF PRAYER.

I believe that God only gives three answers to prayer:

1. "Yes!"
2. "Not yet."
3. "I have something better in mind."

God still sits on the throne, the devil is a liar. You maybe going through a tough time right now but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that you cannot imagine.

This prayer is powerful, and prayer is one of the best gifts we receive. There is no cost but a lot of rewards. Let's continue to pray for one another. Here is the prayer:....

Father, I ask You to bless my friends, relatives and email buddies reading this right now. Show them a new revelation of Your love and power.Amen.

"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice.

It is not a thing to be waited, it is a thing to be achieved."