Tag: Henri Boudon

DEVOTION TO THE HOLY ANGELS

By Venerable Henri Boudon, Archdeacon of Evreux

MOTIVE THE FIRST
The admirable perfections of these Blessed Spirits

We have already said, and again repeat, that the perfection of the Angels is like to an immense sea without shore or bottom. Enlightened souls feel that all they can say of them is nothing, their greatness being above the reach of human thought. The angelic nature contains in itself a world of perfections: but if we add to it the consideration of their grace and glory, it is truly admirable. However perfect human nature may become, it is still, as faith teaches, very inferior to the angelic nature. A certain theologian has asserted, (although indeed it be not the common opinion,) that the least of the Angels exceeds in glory the greatest of the saints—and he grounded his opinion on this text of the Holy Scripture, “He who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist.”

The Angels are spiritual beings, incorruptible in their nature, perfectly disengaged from matter, and quite free from the miseries to which we are incident. They possess wonderful intelligence; what the greatest geniuses have not been able to comprehend, is perfectly understood by them. They know many things in one and the same moment, and without the least difficulty. Their manner of understanding is not like ours; at the first sight which they have of a thing, they know its whole import, and all its consequences—hence they are called by excellence “Intelligences.” Scripture, to declare to us this admirable faculty of theirs, says that they are clothed in burning fire. In the Apocalypse they are represented in the habits of the ancient pontiffs, to give us to understand, that to these holy spirits the most sacred mysteries of religion are revealed, and as if enveloped in clouds, their lights being too brilliant for our weak vision. The most learned men are ignorant, if compared with these pure intelligences.

The power of the Angels is incredible—one alone of these blessed spirits being able to defeat millions of armed men—nay, the whole world put together. [We are told in the Book of Kings, that an Angel slew in one night 85,000 of the Assyrians the enemies of the people of God.] They can make the winds blow, the rain fall, the thunder roar: they can raise tempests, cause earthquakes, give abundance and famine, cure and inflict all sorts of maladies, and operate many other things, almost in a moment. It is to mark their celerity that they are painted with wings; it surpasses that of the wind : in an instant, they can pass from one end of the world to the other —being thus, in some sense, everywhere, as Tertullian says.

But their beauty is enrapturing: the greatest beauty on earth is deformity in comparison with them, and the least beautiful among the Angels possesses more charms than all earthly beauties together. Here the mind is lost in the contemplation of an infinity of beauties, which are to be found among the angelic choirs; for if the least of the Angels be so charming, and if they be so numerous, my God! what beauty is to be seen in the holy Sion ! To give us some idea of this truth, St. Anselm says, that if God put an Angel in the sun’s orbit, and environed him with as many suns as there are stars, and permitted the blessed spirit to emit in a borrowed form a single ray of his glory, it would at once eclipse all the splendour of the suns, and render them invisible.

All is wonderful in these holy spirits. An Angel, to recreate St. Francis, touched a lute so melodiously, that the saint thought he would have died of joy.

The greatness of these blessed spirits is without baseness—their science without ignorance—their light without darkness— their power without weakness—their beauty without defect—their love without inconstancy—their peace without trouble—their action continual, yet without fatigue— their happiness without alloy—their felicity complete, and without admixture of any evil. Jacob having had a vision of an Angel, says that he had seen the Lord face to face. Will not the consideration of all these perfections of the Angels excite you to love them? You who are so prone to love whatever is beautiful, and noble, and perfect? This truth merits deep consideration, the glory of God, the author of all these excellencies and perfections being concerned in it.