“Re-enchanting” the World
Returning to a Devotion to the Guardian Angels
Just as the Catholic Church forgot about angels, the world became obsessed with them. Of course, not in the doctrinal manner of the Church, but in their own fashion. Angels became extensions of the Self. All part of the Gnostic craze enveloping the decadent West. In Dr. Frederick Wilhelmson’s witty, albeit premonitory, characterization,
Today angels have suddenly erupted into vogue, and they seem to be everywhere: charming, chubby, cheerful cherubs, dancing from little pins pinned to the blouses of young women; becoming heroes of a television programs; emerging on the screen disguised as serious fellows in three-piece suits; swooping down from heaven and saving the day for people implicated in seemingly inextricable difficulties. They even win football games by their ghostly appearance on the field. They threatened to displace Santa Claus in the hearts of children at Christmas. We seem to be suffocated in their wings and it is time that Christians ask themselves seriously what is it that we really believe about angels.
It is part of the Modernist project to render every belief of Catholicism obsolete. Angels and saints are at the top of their list. Since angels trumpet the air of the supernatural they become insulting to Man Come of Age. The New Man recognizes a god within him, thus an erasure of the supernatural. Since man cannot suffer such an arid existence, he conjures proxies for the supernatural. Hence, the current obsession with the spirit world. Secularized audiences crave diabolical possession, zombies, strange life on other worlds, witches and covens. It is cri di coeur for God and His real hierarchical world of spirits. Dr. Wilhelmson again, “…angels have returned with a vengeance in popular folklore. But Christians have not brought them back. Pagans have.”
The Modernist mind is content to live in the claustrophobic world of secularized dogmas, viz. transgenderism, diversity, equity, inclusion and doctrinal environmentalism. All counterfeits for God and the world of the supernatural. But only God and his spiritual firmament can bring man peace and liberty. Faux Modernist dogmas slowly choke and kill. Sad that so many in the Church propagate this with impunity. Sadder still that such large numbers of Catholics embrace this like a New Gospel, thinking it better fitted to modern man than the Old One preached by Incarnate God.
Max Weber, renowned sociologist/philosopher wrote in his now famous lecture at Munchen in 1917,
The fate of our time is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, the disenchantment of the world.”
The Church today seems to be the fulfillment of this atheist Weber’s prediction. His patronizing use of the term‘enchantment’referred to supernatural religion, in general, and Roman Catholicism, in particular. While casting a disapproving eye on both, he credits them with giving pre-modern man meaning, albeit an ephemeral and puerile one. The New Man must now set aside such infantile ‘enchantment’. It is his obligation to now bravely accept the new vistas of man without God. Weber’s was the ‘disenchantment’ that modern science world deliver.
The Modernist Project has introduced a new ‘enchantment’: the magical world of the Self. From this demimonde it spins its new dogmas. Or in Milton’s words in Paradise Lost,
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
This is the locus of the Gnostic Man. Dr. Philip Reiff has named him the Psychological Man. Of this new creature, he wrote pungently: “religious man wants to be saved; psychological man wants only to be pleased.”
Isn’t this the thrust of the upcoming Synod on Synodality? It applauds the agenda of the World, and shuns the demands of Christ’s Holy Church. It eschews the Divine constitution of the Savior for His Mystical Body and adopts a latitudinarian model where the vox populi replaces the vox Dei.
Critical to the enterprise of restoring the True Faith, is a reintroduction of a devotion to the angels, particularly our Guardian Angels. It reasserts the prominence of the supernatural in our Holy Religion, an aspect quite embarrassing to the Modernist elite.
Witness the manner in which the Sacred Liturgy is conducted in a majority of parishes throughout the world. Do we find the electrifying presence of God? Is it an irruption of the astonishing presence of the Immolated Lamb of God?Does it evoke in those present a deep sorrow of sin as it touches the hem of the Divine mercy?
Lisbon’s World Youth Day was shocking evidence of quite the opposite. There were bishops looking on approvingly at Holy Mass while a priest manipulated a synthesizer as though he were a DJ at a New York City nightclub. Isn’t this enough to convince any skeptic of the depths to which liturgy has fallen. Naïve Pollyanna’s can no longer defend this as ectopic. It was performed at a papally approved event with bishops giving their nod of assent. Catholics who boast of a ‘sensible conservatism’ have much to answer for as their ‘see-no-evil; hear-no-evil; say-no-evil’ strategy leads to a seemingly irreversible metastatsis of heterodoxy. Remember, as the Liturgy goes, so goes the Catholic soul, viz., lex orandi, lex credendi.
Every Catholic has a part in a return to the supernatural as the essence of our Holy Religion. Devotion to the Guardian Angels is an important first step. Any number of reasons can be adduced for the critical importance of devotion to the angels in these straitened times.
One is metaphysical. God is omnipotent, and yet he takes great joy in channeling His power through others. It further manifests His glory and goodness. St. Thomas calls this secondary causality’. Take a good parent who has labored to instill in their children a solid Catholic character. When others praise the child for their admirable conduct, they are praising the parents who bestowed it. The child is the secondary cause of his character, because the primary cause is his parents. He would not enjoy that quality, if not for his parents. God exercises His power similarly. Though He grants us all we require to execute good actions, such actions would not be possible without His primary causality. The Angelic Doctor explains more fully in several places,,
It is a greater perfection for a thing to be good in itself and also the cause of goodness in others, then only to be good in itself. Therefore, God so governs things that he makes some of them to be causes of others in government, as a master who not only imparts knowledge to his pupils but also gives the faculty of teaching others. If God governed alone, things would be deprived of the perfection of causality. (ST I, 10, 3, 6)
There are certain intermediaries of God's Providence; for He governs things inferior by superior, not on account of any defect in His power, but by reason of the abundance of his goodness: so that the dignity of causality is imparted even to creatures. (ST 1:22:3)
It is not on account of any defect in God's power that He works by means of secondary causes, but it is for the perfection of the order of the universe, and the more manifold outpouring of His goodness on things, through His bestowing on them not only the goodness which is proper to them but also the faculty of causing goodness in others. (ST Suppl. 72:2 ad 1)
God bestows upon the angels an invaluable secondary causality. Through them he governs the created order. This includes a stunning complexity of beauty, which is a pale refraction of the staggering beauty of the Blessed Trinity. Not to be overlooked is the genuine agency of secondary causes, amplifying the infinite dimensions of Divine Providence: each producing genuine causality, but in their ordered manner. All of this unfolding in a hierarchical order that delivers satisfaction to the intellect and peace to the human soul. Thus, Our Blessed Mother is Mediatrix of All Graces. Even Dante in the Divine Comedy has the Virgin Mary summon St. Lucy who, in her turn, selects Beatrice to speak to Dante.
Reflect on the Nine Choirs of Angels:
The First Hierarchy forms God’s immediate court and receives its justice, splendor and burning love by direct communication from Our Lord:
· The Seraphim – uniquely united to the very love of God.
· The Cherubim – united to God by their profound knowledge of the mysteries of God.
· The Thrones – united to God by contemplation and serve Him in an ineffable fashion.
The Second Hierarchy was created by God to govern the world, both spiritual and material in the name of Him, whose inheritance it is, the Man-God, and King of Glory, Jesus Christ.
· The Dominations – preside over the government of the universe, from the steps of God’s throne.
· The Virtues – watch over the course of nature’s laws, the preservation of species, and the movement of the heavens.
· The Powers – hold the spirits of wickedness in subjection under the command of Our Lady, Virgin Most -Powerful.
The Third Hierarchy executes the Divine decrees, both for angels and men. Heaven’s messengers, ambassadors and overseers, they are the ministers of salvation wrought on earth by Jesus, the Heavenly High-Priest.
· The Principalities- preside over the whole human race in general and great social bodies, such as nations and churches, in particular.
· The Archangels – rule the Angels and transmit to them the commands of God together with the love and light which comes down to us from the highest hierarchy. They preside over smaller communities, such as religious Orders and families.
· The Angels – the messengers of God, also deputed with the guardianship of man. From their numbers come the Guardian Angels.
The Guardian Angels are the closest collaborators with the Blessed Trinity on our behalf. Their entire existence is consumed with caring for our existence – both spiritual and physical. Of course, their mediation follows that of Our Lady. Nonetheless, they are deputed in a singular fashion to bring us to heaven. It is their role to inspire our intellect with contrition and works of virtues (especially Holy Charity) as well as assisting us to comprehend matters of great complexity. They fortify our will, so that we not falter before great temptations or crosses that it pleases Our Savior to send us. They are present to protect us from physical dangers, and simply to answer our pleadings for the most pedestrian needs.
While protecting us, they are teaching us humility. We come to the realization that without God’s help coming through the angels and grace, we could do nothing that is good. Our friendship with our Guardian Angels ought to be cultivated daily. Gradually we develop a dependence upon them, which slowly becomes a profound affection.
We must imitate the saints who would frequently commissioned their angels to rush to the assistance of others. Before preaching, St. Vincent Ferrer would plead with his Guardian Angel to visit all those who would be listening and open their hearts.
Perhaps returning to the old Prayer to the Guardian Angels would be a good first step:
Angel of God, my Guardian dear,
To whom God love commits me here,
Ever this day, be at my side,
To light and guard,
To rule and guide. Amen
Too saccharine, you say? That would be the complaint of the Catholic who thinks he has grown up, but actually grown out of the Faith. The Faith bestows a childlikeness that is never childish. It is gilded by the protection of humility. Any Catholic who sneers at the quality of this prayer is not too far from the apostle who protested, “why was this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor.” (Jn 125). Here is where cynicism usurps innocence.
While Modernist clerics mock devotion to the Guardian Angels (along with any trace of supernatural religion) we must remember one thing. Good Catholics fighting for the True Faith will win in this greatest of contests facing Mother Church in two thousand years.
For we have the armies of Heaven fighting with us through our prayers and sacrifices.
Modernists do not. How could they? For them the armies of Heaven are a fantasy.
