Barnes in Common

the magazine of Churches Together in Barnes
November/December 2005

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Pastoral Letter

by Father Anthony Logan
St Osmund’s Church

'What goes around comes around' – this saying comes to mind as I set about a spiritual message for November and December. We move, without time for breath, from the end of one church year on to the beginning of the next. There is a contrast between November, with its focus on the end of the world and judgement, and December where salvation history is about to be recalled again in its origins. Looking for a common theme, suddenly there came to me: 'angels'. In November they have a role at the end, as the sheep are separated from the goats. And in Advent they are God's first emissaries of the Good News.

We may easily overlook angels among the communion of saints, unless your name is Angela or Michael, Gabriel or Raphael (and unless you are blessed in having such a title for your parish). According to the images in scripture angels reveal God's closeness to us and how he affects us personally. God uses the created energy of angels to express himself. Angels gave St Joseph several disturbed nights: in dreams an angel of the Lord speaks to him and God's message becomes real – he must make his way with Jesus and Mary to Egypt and, later, back again.

At Compline we recite the verse 'He has given his angels charge of you, to guard you in all your ways'. St Bernard preached a sermon on this text telling of the trust it should inspire that there are spirits in heaven who cannot rest from the work of caring for us. 'Though the road that lies ahead is so long, and not only long but dangerous, what have we to fear with such guardians?'

The Compline psalm (Ps91) assures us of the presence of the angel who will enable us to step over lions, serpents and dragons that may cross our path. The angel brings us into the safety of God's dwelling deep inside us where no lion can force its way, no snake can slide.

At the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 the belief was formulated that 'from the beginning of time God made both orders of creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal, the angelic and the earthly; and then he made man who shares both orders, body and spirit'. The ministry of the angels is found throughout holy writ, whether saving Isaac in the nick of time, with Jesus after the temptations and in Gethsemane, or telling the holy women to be heralds of the news 'The Lord is risen'. At the Ascension they have an urgent message for the apostles to get about their business preparing for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

So, as the roundabout comes by, we jump on with determination to use the particular graces of a new church year with its festivals and seasons, recalling 'that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son'.

'Praise the Lord, all his angels'
'Holy Michael, archangel, defend us in the day of battle,
lest we be lost at the dreadful judgment'.

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