Feast of the Archangels

The Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Archangels, Michael (Who is like God?), Gabriel (the Power of God) and Raphael (God has healed). According to the Church Fathers, there are nine orders of angels: Angels, Archangels, Virtues/Powers, Authorities, Principalities, Dominations, Throne, Cherubim and Seraphim. They are spiritual beings which are beyond our understanding. Theologians have already tried their very best to figure out their activities. To be frank, their work cannot go beyond mere speculation. Like God, angels are as elusive. They do not leave any traces behind for us to put them through the microscope. However, God does enable us to feel their presence and allows us to engage in interactions.
This morning, Jesuszette spoke in the morning assembly. Our new principal revamps the morning assembly. On Mondays, Catholic teachers, herself and the Supervisor will take turn to speak. Tuesdays and Fridays, there is no assembly but class-teacher periods in the classrooms. This year, the school introduces Centralized Morning Prayers through the PA system on Tuesdays and Fridays. Non-class teachers will take care of them. The remaining two days remain the same. So, Jesuszette spoke this morning. I told her to speak about the archangels because it is their feast day. She spoke very well.
She began by explaining the roles played by these three archangels: Michael the protector; Gabriel the messenger and Raphael the healer. She understands that it is impossible to explain angels. Therefore, she invited us to feel their existence. If we don't feel their existence, why don't we become one such angel ourselves. When we work for justice, help the needy and support the weak, we are playing the role of Michael. When we preach the good news and bear witness to the truth, we are Gabriel. When we smile and console the depressed, we are healing people like Raphael. There were no scholarly quotations from the Bible. Nor were there speculative theological propositions. Yet, you could feel her warmth and sincerity.
In the reading today, we found one particularly spectacular verse in Daniel.
A stream of fire issued and came forth from before him;
a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him;
the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened (Daniel 7:10).
This heavenly court is awesome indeed. 100 millions angels stood before God the Father from whom a stream of fire came forth. Had the author of Daniel known some larger cardinals, he would have used them instead. Nowadays, we use millions, billions and even trillions and zillions. These cardinals only reveal our greed and self-aggrandizement.

My dear Advocate, You have created both angels and men to serve You. Grant us the wisdom to know Your will. Grant us the strength to execute Your will. May we be handy and useful instruments of Yours. Amen.


Comment from zette:
Thank you for the nice comments, Alex. :) You have captured what I wanted to spread: a message to all that we can play a part in mirroring the archangels' miracles. Thank you for giving me a chance to talk about the archangels. If it weren't for you, I would have talked about something else which would be a pity because the Feast of the archangels deserves attention, especially now as we are in the midst of new challenges.