DO NOT FEAR

But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel" (which means, God with us).

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife.

-- Matthew 1:20-24

LOVERS of God

St. Francis of Assisi prayed this simple prayer, "O Lord Jesus Christ, two favors I beg of you before I die. The first is that I may, as far as it is possible, feel in my soul and in my body the suffering in which you, O gentle Jesus, sustained in your bitter passion. And the second favor is that I, as far as it is possible, may receive in my heart that excessive charity by which you, the Son of God, were inflamed, and which actuated you willingly to suffer so much for us sinners."

Our Lord answered his prayer by appearing to him in the form of a seraph, a six-winged angel of love. As he knelt in the ecstasy, Christ imprinted the wounds of His person in the flesh of St. Francis. At once, in his hands and feet marks like nails began to appear; and, in his left side the image of a lance-thrust appeared, red and bleeding. St. Francis had been marked with the love of Christ- the Stigmata.

After bearing these wounds of Christ for two years, St. Francis died in the year 1226. He left the Church and the world a great legacy--the Franciscan Order. For more than seven hundred years, through the grace of God, this Order has produced many outstanding Saints. .

The Seraphim are usually considered the highest order of angelic beings, immediately above the Cherubim. Their special duty is to love God. Seraph wings and seraphs are symbolic of the Franciscan Order, which is often referred to as the Seraphic Order. At times, Franciscan and Seraphic are synonymous.

Let us pray today and ask the Lord to help us lead holy lives as the person He has created us to be in the small spot in the world where He has placed us. Let us no longer be content or satisfied with the way we are, but strive to be holy. As holy men and women of God, we will experience happiness both here on earth and for all eternity, for sanctification will lead us to live lives that are simple, less complicated, and focused on the things that really matter. Pray for metanoia this Advent -- an inner transformation -- to be drawn closer to the Heart of God and His Holy Mother.

"If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful roses, what might the heart of man become in its journey toward the stars."

~ G.K. Chesterton

Holder of the Key to the bottomless Pit

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain.

And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were ended. After that he must be loosed for a little while.

-- Revelation 20:1-3

BEARER of Plagues

Then I saw another portent in heaven, great and wonderful, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is ended.

And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands.

And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and wonderful are thy deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are thy ways, O King of the ages!

Who shall not fear and glorify thy name, O Lord? For thou alone art holy. All nations shall come and worship thee, for thy judgments have been revealed."

-- Revelation 15: 1 - 4

Reaper of the Harvest

Then I looked, and lo, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat upon the cloud, "Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe." So he who sat upon the cloud swung his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.

And another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. Then another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has power over fire, and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, "Put in your sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe." So the angel swung his sickle on the earth and gathered the vintage of the earth, and threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God.

-- Revelation 14: 14 - 19

Holder of the Scroll

Then the voice which I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, "Go, take the scroll which is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land."

So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, "Take it and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth."

And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.

And I was told, "You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and tongues and kings."

-- Revelation 10: 8 - 11

Bearer of Seals

Then I saw another angel ascend from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads."

And I heard the number of the sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand sealed, out of every tribe of the sons of Israel,

-- Revelation 7: 2 - 4

Worshipers of God

All the angels stood round the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying,

"Amen! 

Blessing and glory and wisdom 

and thanksgiving and honor 

and power and might 

be to our God 

for ever and ever! 

Amen."

-- Revelation 7:11-12

He will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the LORD, "My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust."

For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

No evil shall befall you, 

no scourge come near your tent. 

For he will give his angels charge of you 

to guard you in all your ways.

Psalms 91: 1 - 6, 10 - 11

Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

Jesus saw Nathan'a-el coming to him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!"

Nathan'a-el said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."

Nathan'a-el answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"

Jesus answered him, "Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these."

And he said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man."

John 1: 47 - 51

Angels rejoice over one sinner who repents

Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God 

over one sinner who repents.

Luke 15:10

The angels of God rejoices over those who repent on earth. They see the guilt and danger of people; they know what God has done for the race, and they rejoice at the recovery of any from the guilt and ruins of sin.

They rejoice at his repentance because it recovers him back to the love of God, and because it will save him from eternal death.

The word may refer to angels as well as to people.

There are no "just" people on earth who need no repentance, Ecclesiastes 7:20; Psalm 14:2-3; Romans 3:10-18.

Our Saviour did not mean to imply that there were any such. He was speaking of what took place "in heaven," or among "angels," and of "their" emotions when they contemplate the creatures of God; and he says that "they" rejoiced in the repentance of one "sinner" more than in the holiness of many who had not fallen.

We are not to suppose that he meant to teach that there were just ninety-nine holy angels to one sinner. He means merely that they rejoice more over the "repentance" of one sinner than they do over many who have not fallen.

By this he vindicated his own conduct.

The Jews did not deny the existence of angels. They would not deny that their feelings were proper. If "they" rejoiced in this manner, it was not improper for "him" to show similar joy, and especially to seek their conversion and salvation. If they rejoice also, it shows how desirable is the repentance of a sinner.

They know of how much value is an immortal soul. They see what is meant by eternal death; and they do not feel "too much," or have "too much anxiety" about the soul that can never die. Oh that people saw it as "they" see it! and oh that they would make an effort, such as angels see to be proper, to save their own souls and the souls of others from eternal death! -- Clarke's Commentary on the Bible

There are some, and their opinion need not be hastily rejected, who imagine that by the ninety and nine just persons, our Lord means the angels - that they are in proportion to men, as ninety-nine are to one, and that the Lord takes more pleasure in the return and salvation of one sinner, than in the uninterrupted obedience of ninety-nine holy angels; and that it was through his superior love to fallen man that he took upon him his nature, and not the nature of angels.

I have met with the following weak objection to this: viz. "The text says just persons; now, angels are not persons, therefore angels cannot be meant."

This is extremely foolish; there may be the person of an angel, as well as of a man; we allow persons even in the Godhead; besides, the original word, δικαιοις, means simply just ones, and may be, with as much propriety, applied to angels as to men.

After all, our Lord may refer to the Essenes, a sect among the Jews, in the time of our Lord, who were strictly and conscientiously moral; living at the utmost distance from both the hypocrisy and pollutions of their countrymen. These, when compared with the great mass of the Jews, needed no repentance. The reader may take his choice of these interpretations, or make a better for himself. I have seen other methods of explaining these words; but they have appeared to me either too absurd or too improbable to merit particular notice. -- Clarke