Every Wednesday we invite you to Pause & Pray with us. Today’s reflection is written/curated by Elliot J. Weidenaar.

Pray:

God who ever intercedes on our behalf and who ordains angels, saints, and the virgin Mary to intercede alongside us, grant us the peace to know that we are not alone in these hectic and ever changing days. Grant us, too, the grace and mercy to ever-intercede for our siblings in Christ and the Human condition, so that all may know that they are never alone, as you are always with Christ and the Holy Spirit—One God, Amen.

St. Michael, captain anointed to defend the Church and her people from all evil, we pray that you might intercede for us before God that we might not fall into temptation, but that God might deliver us from Evil. Amen.

Meditation:

“Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals: Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may help and defend us here on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”
Collect for Michaelmas from the Book of Common Prayer 1979 (https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearABC/HolyDays/Michael.html Accessed 23 September 2024).

“ I answer that men, women, and people have a guardian angel appointed to their persons. This rests upon the fact that the Guardianship of Angels belongs to the execution of Divine Providence concerning people,”
St. Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theologica (I.113.6). Translated by Elliot J. Weidenaar

“The Ministry of the Angels exists because God, seeing the human condition, could not bear to see us alone,” — Rev. Susan R. Ironside, Rector of Grace Episcopal Church, Madison.

When people get overtly spiritual, I tend to balk. In my mind there is no need to look to heaven when there is so much human suffering, ingenuity, and capacity for change right here on earth. My upbringing was deeply and fiercely Christian, and it was also overwhelmingly scientific. As I have found myself drifting further and further into high church mainline protestantism, I have encountered more and more an odd dichotomy whereby people believe deeply in the spiritual forces and the power and importance of science. And in fairness, the idea that God could not stand to see us manage the human condition alone and so set forth the ministry of the angels, not only to bring divine missives to us but also to be present to us and pray for us, is striking to me. And as always with God it is a striking reversal of defense and guardianship—the angels are not actively beating back demons from our presence on a regular basis (I won’t pretend to assume that they never do it—I cannot peer across that veil to confirm or deny my suspicions) instead they cover us with a blanket of prayer, a constant intercession. This constant intercession by the angels joins the voices of Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Theotokos, and all the saints that have walked before us; it is an intercession by name which rings forth from now until the end of the age. We are not alone, we are never alone. The call of this feast day then, is not to dwell on the intercession present to us in the ministry of the angels, but to throw off the curse of Cain (Genesis 4:2-18)—all people are our siblings, all people deserve our prayer, our care, and our action against forces which might devour them (see Eve’s response to Abel’s murder Genesis 4:25). As we walk into this increasingly volatile political time, and transgress from here to whatever comes after November 5th, let us remember that there is no person in this country, or this planet who is not our sibling—and all our siblings deserve our constant prayer and care.

Listen:

Hector Berlioz, Messe Solennelle

Images: An Icon of a Guardian Angel in elusa with a child. Icon from the Author’s Collection, purchased from Legacy Icons, INC. Image provided by Legacy Icons, INC (https://legacyicons.com/guardian-angel-and-child-icon-s263/).
An Icon of St. Michael the Archangel. Michael stands facing forward in armor and holds a spear and a shield. Icon from the Author’s Collection, purchased from Monastery icons INC, Image provided by Monastery Icons, INC. (https://www.monasteryicons.com/product/st-michael-military-icon-583/icons-of-the-holy-angels)