I recently spent a week with an angel. Not just any angel but the Archangel Michael. Meaning I spent a week writing an icon of St. Michael. It’s the first icon I’ve ever written and it’s called writing an icon for a couple of reasons. The strokes used are calligraphic as one writes the word of God with line and color and because in the Russian language writing and painting are the same word. The experience of writing this icon of St. Michael was deeply spiritual and deeply prayerful, especially as I worked on the hands and face. Icons, as I am learning, are designed to be open doors between us and God and are meant to communicate Christian truth in a visual way.
Writing this icon has made me aware that I’ve never given much thought to angels. Why, I’m not sure. But it’s set me on a quest of sorts to find out more about them. Coming into the season of Christmas we will hear lots about angels as we sing... “Angels We Have Heard on High”, “Hark the Hearld Angels Sing”……… And we will hear the Angel Gabriel say to Mary, “Greeting favored one.” But did you know the word angel or angels appears 329 times in the Bible and almost fifty times in the Book of Common Prayer. Looks like according to scripture and our prayers angels are all around us, all the time. Even ancient liturgies make mention of the holy angels. The early Church Fathers and Mothers express adoration of angels. St. Leo the Great said to make friends with the holy angels and we will find them to be most loving companions in our earthly pilgrimage. St. Bridget, who was favored by God with heavenly visions, tell us that if we were to see an angel in all his beauty, we should be so ravished with delight at the sight, that we should die of love. And St. Augustine writes about angels that “they have compassion on us and at God’s command they hasten to our aid.”
Angels are messengers. Messengers of God. They are all around us.