Angels are purely spiritual creatures who were made by God with intelligence and free will. The name angel comes from the Greek word for “messenger” which reflects how they serve God.
Powerful and intelligent, each angel is an individual person who has freely chosen to love and serve God for eternity. They praise God in Heaven, and worship Him with Catholics at Mass on Earth.
Satan and his demons are fallen angels who chose to reject God and rebelled against Him. Created by God, they are inferior to him and will never defeat Him.
The Bible describes different types of angels which theologians have arranged in a hierarchy of choirs or ranks. The Seraphim are the highest order, followed by Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Archangels, Principalities, and Angels.
People are Earth are are ranked below the angels while the saints in Heaven are ranked above them.
Having no body and being purely spiritual, angels can never become human although they may appear in human or other physical form. With both a body and a spirit, humans do not become angels when they die.
Three of the Archangels – Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael – are the only angels who are named in the Bible.
Each person has a unique guardian angel to protect, guide, and advocate for them during their life to help them reach Heaven.
The Catholic Church celebrates the presence and assistance of angels throughout the year. The Feast of the Archangels is celebrated on September 29, and the Feast of the Guardian Angels on October 2.
Spiritual beings who serve God:
Angels exist:
Angels are what they do:
Angels help us to praise God:
Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a gold censer. He was given a great quantity of incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the holy ones, on the gold altar that was before the throne. The smoke of the incense along with the prayers of the holy ones went up before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with burning coals from the altar, and hurled it down to the earth. There were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
Revelation 8: 3-5
Angels have intellect and free will:
Angels have been present since creation and throughout the history of salvation, announcing this salvation from afar or near and serving the accomplishment of the divine plan: they closed the earthly paradise; protected Lot; saved Hagar and her child; stayed Abraham’s hand; communicated the law by their ministry; led the People of God; announced births and callings; and assisted the prophets, just to cite a few examples. Finally, the angel Gabriel announced the birth of the Precursor and that of Jesus himself.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church 332
Humans do not become angels when they die:
Humans outrank the angels in Heaven:
Let us note that Sacred Scripture and Tradition properly call angels those pure spirits who in the fundamental test of freedom have chosen God, his glory and his kingdom. They are united with God through the consummate love that flows from the beatifying vision, face to face, of the Most Holy Trinity. Jesus himself says so: “The angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven” That “always seeing the face of the Father” is the highest manifestation of the adoration of God. It can be said that it constitutes that “heavenly liturgy”, performed in the name of the entire universe, with which the earthly liturgy of the Church is incessantly associated, especially in its culminating moments. Let it suffice here to recall the act by which the Church, every day and every hour, throughout the world, before beginning the Eucharistic prayer in the heart of the Holy Mass, calls upon “the angels and archangels” to sing the glory of the thrice-holy God, thus uniting herself with those first worshippers of God, in the worship and loving knowledge of the ineffable mystery of his holiness.
Pope John Paul II, General Audience, 6 August 1986
Angels are ranked in nine choirs:
Different angels have different roles:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
Getting to the truth in a more consistent way:
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