Catholic Replies
Editor’s Note: This series on the Bible is from the book Catholicism & Scripture. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well.
Special Course On Catholicism And Scripture (Chapter 6)
Angels are highly intelligent spirits who can and do take on human form on occasion. They are primarily messengers from God and have been the subject of many books, movies, and TV programs. They are mentioned 300 times in the Bible, and they are not fat little babies with wings, but rather powerful warriors whose sudden appearance frightens people. That is why the first words from an angel are often, “Do not be afraid.”
Angels are divided into nine groupings or choirs, ranging from the lowest to the highest: Angels, Archangels, Principalities, Powers, Virtues, Dominations, Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim. God has also assigned to each one of us from the day we were born a guardian angel to watch over and protect us.
We should say this prayer every day: “Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here. Ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.” We can pray not only to our own guardian angel, but also to the guardian angels of other persons.
There are three archangels mentioned in the Bible — Raphael, Gabriel, and Michael. In the Book of Tobit in the Old Testament, Raphael is sent by God to guide and protect a young man named Tobiah, whose father, Tobit, sends him to a far country to get some money that belongs to him. Tobit gave his son this parting advice: “Keep the Lord in mind and suppress every desire to sin or to break the Commandments. Perform good works all the days of your life and do not tread the paths of wrongdoing” (Tobit 4:5-6).
Raphael made it possible for Tobiah to marry a woman named Sarah, who had been plagued by a demon named Asmodeus, and he also helped to cure Tobit of blindness. When they tried to pay him for his services, Raphael told them that he was one of seven angels who “serve before the glory of the Lord” and who was sent by God to help Tobit and Tobiah. He told them to thank God every day and “praise Him with song” (Tobit 12:15, 18).
In the Gospel of Luke, Gabriel is sent first to Zechariah to announce the birth of John the Baptist and then to Mary to announce the birth of Jesus. Gabriel assured Mary that having a child would not compromise her vow of virginity and that she would conceive Jesus through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. The archangel told Mary that her child “will be great and will be called Son of the Most High…and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32-33).
In the Book of Revelation, it says that “war broke out in Heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon….The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to Earth, and its angels were thrown down with it” (12:7-9).
There is a special prayer to St. Michael that asks him to protect us against “the wickedness and snares of the Devil” and to “drive into Hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls.”
Angels are very prominent in the Old Testament. They visited with Abraham and Lot, led Moses toward the Red Sea during the Israelites’ escape from Egypt, protected them in the Sinai wilderness, guarded the Prophet Elijah from those who wanted to kill him, struck down 185,000 Assyrians in their camp, and delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from a fiery death.
In the New Testament, angels announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds in Bethlehem, warned Joseph to flee to Egypt to escape King Herod’s wrath and to return home after Herod died, ministered to Jesus after His temptations by Satan in the wilderness, consoled Him during His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, appeared to some women at the tomb after the Resurrection on Easter Sunday and to the apostles after Jesus ascended into Heaven forty days later, and guided the early Church by twice rescuing Peter from jail and encouraging the Gentile Cornelius to seek Baptism from Peter.
Angels are mentioned dozens of times in the Book of Revelation, beginning with their prompting of the Apostle John to write down the visions he saw.
List of Answers:
ANGELS
ARCHANGELS
BETHLEHEM
BIBLE
CHOIRS
GABRIEL
GUARDIAN
JESUS
MESSENGERS
MICHAEL
MOSES
PETER
RAPHAEL
REVELATION
SPIRITS
WOMEN
Quiz:
- There is considerable interest in _________________today.
- Angels are mentioned some 300 times in the _.
- Angels are highly intelligent and powerful ____.
- Their main function is to act as ___ from God.
- There are nine _____ or groupings of angels.
- The three ____ mentioned in the Bible are Raphael, Gabriel, and Michael.
- Each one of us has a special __________________angel to watch over and guide us.
- _____________ is known for protecting Tobiah in the Book of Tobit.
- __________________is known for telling Mary she was to be the Mother of Jesus.
- ___ is known for driving Satan and the bad angels out of Heaven.
- An angel protected _ and the people of Israel from the Egyptian army.
- Angels announced to the shepherds in _______ that the Messiah had been born.
- An angel consoled __ in the Garden of Gethsemane.
- An angel told the _ at the tomb on Easter that Jesus had risen from the dead.
- An angel freed St. _ from prison, where he was guarded by 16 soldiers.
- In the last book of the Bible, the Book of ________________, an angel made God’s Revelation known to John in a series of startling visions.
