By Mgr. POPE The content of this post comes from a series I have been teaching at the Institute of Catholic Culture on the mission of the angels. Angels are ministering spirits mystically present and active throughout creation, in the events of Scripture, in the liturgy, and in our lives. The fundamental source for these reflections is Jean Cardinal Danielou’s book The Angels and Their Mission: According to the Fathers of the Church. The references to the Fathers in my posts are fully footnoted in his book, but some of the scriptural passages below represent my own additions. I encourage you to read Cardinal Danielou’s book. It is relatively short (a mere 114 pages) and packed with stirring and edifying accounts of the works of the angels according to Scripture and the Fathers of the Church. Here we consider the role of the angels at the parousia (the second coming) and the glory that awaits those who have been faithful. The final chapters in the cardinal’s book, on the eschaton (the last things)
A Leaven In The World . . . A generous brother priest volunteered to cover my Sunday Masses once this month. Freeing up the weekend enabled me to connect weekdays of two adjoining weeks resulting in a more generous period for a drive to Florida where my father and extended family now reside in the Space Coast area. Two brothers are retired there and nieces are marrying and transitioning there. One of these, with her husband and two baby boys, lives blocks from the Atlantic Coast. As well, my father had long nursed plans to transition to Florida if my mother should predecease him, as his two remaining siblings and their families reside in the Orlando and Palm Beach areas. She did. And he did. Last November was a year that my mother departed from us. May she rest in peace. After an overnight stop at my Virginia hermitage, the balance of the 12-hour drive took until after midnight. My father has a simple apartment in an