Children and Angels
(by Fr. Michele Prader)
The Messengers of God
Dear children, I am very happy to be able to speak to you about the Angels; together we will get to know and appreciate better the gift of God called “Holy Angel”, and life’s experience will allows us to feel the real and living presence of these heavenly brothers of ours.
Our Lady will be very happy about your interest in the Angel, and this is proven by the events of Fatima in which the Angel was the messenger of Our Lady and, of course, of Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
I can tell you on behalf of the most purest Virgin: “Love the Angel, listen to him and obey him, because he is at my service, since I am the Mother of the Church and of the whole world”.
This time, let’s try to answer two questions:
-Why is Our Lady, before coming Herself to see the children and talk to them, preceded by the Angel?
-Why is the Angel the Angel of Portugal and not one of their guardian Angels?
The answer is very simple, and it is the same for both questions: it is the importance and the great significance of the Message of Fatima which demands this way of operating.
The Bible shows us this truth several times, just think of the most important message, the one in which St. Gabriel the Archangel announced to the Virgin Mary that God would become man in Her.
For a special message it’s logical that a special messenger is sent too. The guardian Angel, our brother and friend who is with us day and night without ever leaving us, is given to us as a companion and normal help.
In the event of Fatima, there is a special task, an important message intended not only for those three children, but for all children, for all men, for the Church and for the whole world. The Angel had to prepare them and instruct them so that they could accomplish their duty as messengers of Our Lady: they already had to know how to pray, suffer, adore, be silent, etc…
The Angel of Portugal is sent for this purpose (St. Michael the Archangel is the patron of Portugal) because the whole nation of Portugal was chosen to live and convey Our Lady’s message to other nations and first of all to the people of God who is made up of the members of the Church.
For this reason, we too are called to follow Our Lady’s message and to let ourselves be instructed by the Angel, to be well prepared for our duty of bearing witness to Jesus in our times. Our Angel, who is always beside us, is the messenger of the divine will of our conscience.
Mother Church, in the Holy Mass, in honour of the guardian Angels tells us the divine words which explain the Angel’s duty. These words are addressed to the people of Israel, but since a nation is always made up of an ensemble of individuals, the Church, in this connection, puts these words in the context of the Mass of the guardian Angels:
“Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him. But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.” From the Book of Exodus, 23, 20-22.
The example of the Angels
On May 13, 1942 the Cardinal of Lisbon spoke about the apparitions of the Angel at Fatima for the first time. Francisco and Jacinta had gone to heaven without saying a word, and Lucia narrated the episodes and revealed the place of the apparitions of the Angels only in obedience, 25 years later.
Why was there this silence?
Because the Angel at Fatima comes as Our Lady’s servant, and only has the task of preparing the children for their encounter with Her. He remains in the background, leaving his Queen and Her message in the foreground.
This is an example of the HUMILITY of the Angels, who reveal themselves and speak about themselves only when the Lord wants them to. They always look at the Face of God to know His Will and run to accomplish it without hesitation. The wings with which they appear represent the immediacy with which they fly to do the Lord’s will.
They consider themselves only as God’s “servants”, they really feel they are His creatures, and for this reason their greatest desire is to be able to serve Him. St. Michael expressed this perfect humility with these words: «Who is like God?» opposing the absurd pride of Lucifer who rebelled against God.
Mary, the most humble and pure Virgin Mother, lived and still lives the virtue of the Angels. After a poor and hidden life at the service of her Son and of the young Church, she was assumed into Heaven and placed above all beings as Mother and Queen. But She continues to live in the spirit of the Angels and reveals herself and makes herself heard only when God wants her to.
At the school of the Angel and of Our Lady, the children of Fatima learned to be faithful to the words given to them; to say nothing about the secrets entrusted to them; to remain humbly in God’s will by being obedient unto heroism, without yielding to flattery, threats or conceit: the Angel told them to keep quiet, and they obeyed by keeping in their hearts the honorary event of the apparitions.
Following the example of Our Lady and of the children of Fatima, let us be similar to the Angels with total availability to the will of God. Let us not rebel like Lucifer did by trying to do only what we like, but let us remain faithful to God by bearing witness to Him like St. Michael: “Who is like God?”.
There is so much strength in the Archangel’s cry! Let’s repeat it often as an arrow and a shield against evil! As an expression of faith and love! As praise to the Lord!
Holy Angels, teach us HUMILITY, teach us silence and faithfulness, teach us to look at the Face of God from which comes the Light for the journey of life!
An awakening and transforming wind
Dear children, let us focus on the account of the Angel’s apparition to the three shepherd children, made by the Cardinal of Lisbon on May 13, 1942, according to Lucia’s deposition: «We prayed our rosary, and then we started to play… all of a sudden a strong wind started to shake the trees… then we saw a boy aged 14 or 15 coming towards us, he was whiter than snow, and the sun made him as transparent as crystal…»
Let us reflect on these words.
«We prayed our rosary»: the children used to pray and so they were ready to accept the words from Heaven. Their souls were opened up to God like a flower opens up it calyx.
We must pray, to open up our souls to God. Whoever doesn’t want to pray closes himself to God!
«A strong wind started to shake the trees»: the wind, in Holy Scriptures, is a symbol of the life-giving action of the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, while the apostles were gathered together in prayer, «suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind,… and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit» (Acts 2,2-4).
The gust of wind which the children heard at Fatima is a special Pentecost for them: like the apostles, they are renewed, transformed and strengthened by the Holy Spirit; they are taken out of material reality and lifted up into the heavenly sphere; they are strengthened for the difficult trials which await them and to be able to bear a special witness of Faith and Love. A new life begins for them, by an exceptional path of sorrow and glory which they will walk, prepared and guided by the Angel.
Did the work which the Holy Spirit began at Fatima end with the three shepherd children? No, we are strongly convinced that Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta are only the first fruits of the new era which Our Lady has promised.
Children, persevere in prayer, especially the prayer of the rosary, and God’s Wind of Love will sweep you away too:
Oh Mary,
Let us also, with our prayers and willingness,
Open up to God the calyx of our souls.
In this way, our Guardian Angel will be able to send us His messages
And lead us to Him.
The vision of the Angel
Dear children,
We were meditating on the apparition of the Angel of Portugal to the shepherd children of Fatima, and we were talking about the wind – a sign of the Holy Spirit – which really exists but we do not see where it comes from nor where it goes, as Jesus says.
The three children, turning towards the east, see a beautiful and shining young boy, who introduces himself as the Angel of Portugal. It wasn’t a usual vision, Angels are spirit and that is, bodiless beings, therefore in the children’s vision there was an extraordinary power, which isn’t humanly natural, a vision in light of a particular spiritual light which a soul in a state of grace can receive if God desires it.
When anyone receives this gift we speak of a vision.
The Angel lives in the spiritual kingdom and the shepherd children, with the vision of the Angel, entered into this spiritual world.
Even our soul, if it is pure and in God’s love, belongs to this world, but our eyes are still veiled. If the Lord wants to, he can open our eyes and let us see supernaturally as it will be in Heaven, and as He did with the apostles after His resurrection. In fact, Jesus revealed Himself to the apostles with His real spiritualized body, and He says to St. Thomas: – who didn’t want to believe before – «Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.» (Jn 20,29)
This is true for us also. Blessed are we if we believe without seeing: God will give us the reward for our faith, because we honour Him. The Angels exist, and they serve the Lord in the world without being seen; just as our soul exists, we can’t see it, but it makes us talk, think, decide, love, forgive… It is spirit, and we know how it directs our body which is its instrument.
Today many people do not want to believe in the existence of the soul or of Angels. How unfortunate they are! They have lost their faith and, with their faith, precisely what they’re blindly looking for: the true joy of life, which lies in the spirit and in the knowledge that we will live in eternity, and that everything will have a purpose in God!
Angel of mine,
I believe that You exist.
I believe in the existence of my spiritual soul,
Which will never die, like You.
You are the big brother of my soul.
Help me to preserve it for our Lord.
Flying quickly he drew near…
While reading the story of the children of Fatima, one thing struck me, and namely that the Angel came quickly.
This very expression is used, in Holy Scriptures, when talking about the Archangel Gabriel who flying quickly, drew near…
«Flying quickly he drew near…»: let us find a lesson for our life in the Angel’s behaviour. I think that our Guardian Angel, flying quickly, approaches us to bring the word of God to our conscience. It is important that we LISTEN and OBEY immediately, because:
- by obeying immediately, we make sure we receive God’s grace and assistance;
- by obeying immediately, we overcome evil. Woe to us if – like Eve – we play with temptation: we will stagger and fall.
The Angel “quickly” accomplishes the task which HIS LORD imposes on him . Children, follow his example!
The Angels’ appearance
Speaking about the Angel, Lucia of Fatima narrates: «We saw a boy of about 14 or 15 years old».
Some of you may object: «So is the Angel a boy?». No, it’s a spirit without a body. «But the children of Fatima say they saw a boy! How do you explain that?»
The angels follow the example of God who, in order to redeem man, wanted to be similar to him by becoming man: since man alone cannot be saved, He became like him, to redeem him.
The Angel doesn’t become man, like the Son of God did, but he takes on the likeness of man. So we understand how, having to adapt himself to children, he takes on the likeness of a boy.
The Angels can give a sign of their presence with light or in other ways, but they usually appear to men in the likeness of humans. In Holy Scriptures the Angel appears to the prophet Daniel in human form. He appears to Tobias as a boy of his own age and accompanies him on a long journey, helping him and defending him from many dangers.
«Today do the Angels appear anymore?», someone might ask me. The most eloquent answer is found by meditating on the life and letters of Padre Pio of Pietralcina, the Capuchin who was already stigmatized at the age of 18. When he was a child, he was often by himself, without seeking the rowdy friendship of other boys. This attitude seemed strange to some, but he himself later on confessed that he was always in the company of his Guardian Angel, who was also his playmate. And he was convinced that other children saw their Angel too…
When he was a theology student and a young priest, he used to write to his Spiritual Father about his continuous contact with his Guardian Angel, who explained French to him and dictated letters in this language, which he had never studied; who translated Greek which he also didn’t know; who used to wake him up to say morning prayers together to the Lord. Padre Pio used to complain to his Angel and the Angel used to give him a “nice little lecture”; Padre Pio entrusted his Guardian Angel with the task of going to console suffering souls; the Angel was his efficient secretary. (Padre Pio of Pietralcina, Epistolary I).
The Angels are always next to us and are ready to help us, as Holy Scriptures, the children of Fatima and Padre Pio of Pietralcina tell us.
But we have to love them and invoke them with faith.
