Look around you. How many others are in the room with you? I propose that the actual number is more than double.

We all believe in things we can’t see: air, wind, electricity, gravity. But invisible spiritual realities surround us too. We each have a guardian angel. Take the number of people with you now and double it for a good guess as to how many beings are with you at this moment.

What can we learn about Angels?

I studied angels for a book I wrote (Battle for His Soul), and I’d like to share what I’ve learned. Most of my information came from St. Thomas Aquinas. Do you know who he is? He was a philosopher and theologian, now considered a Doctor of the Church. He is also called the Angelic Doctor because of his writings on angels.

In grade school, we all learn that there are three kinds of substances: animal, vegetable, and mineral. These are all physical substances, but we know that humans are so much more. We are made of both body and soul. Aquinas believed that to round out the order of things there must be something that is purely spiritual with no body. We call pure spirits angels.

There are far more angels than any other material thing.

Each angel is one of a kind

We classify and sort all material things. Since angels have no matter in them, they can’t be sorted in the same way. While angels share the same spiritual nature (so they are of the same genus) each angel is the only one of its kind. Each angel is a species that is essentially different from every other angel.

Each angel is unique. Each represents the goodness of God in a unique way. I like this detail because it allowed me to give a different personality to each of the guardian angels in my story. While I portrayed angels with bodies, wings, and cool weapons in my story, angels actually have no bodies or physical matter. So they can’t die, decay, or change.

What can angels do?

Do angels ever assume bodies? We know from Holy Scripture that they do. Angels appeared in bodily form to Adam and Eve (when they were kicked out of the garden) to Abraham, Tobias, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the shepherds, to name a few. You or I may have seen our guardian angel.

Aquinas believed angels can move quickly. Our guardian angels are in the world with us, so they move in time. They can’t be in two places at once. But they can move at the speed of thought.

Angels are highly intelligent, more so than any person, and they can grow in knowledge, but they have no need to learn. They were given their knowledge the moment they were created. Angels do not all have the same intelligence either. There are higher and lower angels. Each one has the knowledge they need for their particular status and the work they will do.

Angels have free will. Just as we have free will, so do angels. They exercise it more perfectly than we do, partly because they don’t have the temptations of the flesh.

Angels love. Love is something a person chooses to do freely. Angels have free will, therefore they have love. In fact, while it involves choice, love is a natural tendency for angels. They love themselves, each other, and God most of all.

What about fallen angels?

Angels were not created before the physical world, but at the same time. They were created in heaven, but they did not originally possess God in the beatific vision. That requires grace. This explains how some became fallen angels. Each angel had the choice to love God or to put themselves first. Those who chose God merited the beatific vision.

It’s different for humans. We take steps and move through stages, growing in holiness. We can fall and get back up. We sin, repent, and are forgiven over and over. But they had one choice. The choice of a pure spirit is final and unchanging. Those who chose God, the beatified angels, cannot sin.

Before beatification, angels could sin. And some did. Those are the fallen angels, aka demons. Demons try to lead people to commit every kind of sin, but they have no bodies so they can only commit two kinds of sin: pride and envy. Lucifer, now called Satan, wished to be equal to God though he knew that it was impossible for a creature to be equal to the creator. He wanted to create by his own power, to achieve beatitude without God’s help, and to have command over others in a way proper to God alone.

Sin is contrary to the natural order, so it occurs less frequently. Therefore, there are fewer fallen angels than faithful angels.

Fallen angels did not lose their knowledge or intellect. They also have sorrow. Not the sorrow of repentance but sorrow of knowing that they will never attain beatitude and that, despite their efforts against us, we might still get to heaven. That’s why they are so busy battling against our salvation.

Back to the good angels…. Each of us was given a guardian angel from the first moment of our existence, so at conception.

What can angels do for us? 

They can enlighten us by strengthening our understanding or making us aware of something. Angels can deliver messages from God to us or from us to God.

Angels can guard and protect us. From The Catechism of the Catholic Church:

“From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession. ‘Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.’ Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God” (CCC, 336)

They cannot act upon our human will. God alone can do that. But they can influence us by stirring up images in our imagination. They can also work upon the human senses, as is the case when one assumes visible form.

Have you recognized the actions of your guardian angel in your life?

I lived on the tiny island of Guam when typhoon Pamela hit. The island sustained an incredible amount of damage, but only one person died. I can’t help but think how busy the guardian angels must have been.

I’ve been in several accidents and never came to harm, including when, as a young woman on my way to a job interview, I crashed my car. The steering wheel was up against the driver’s seat but somehow, I got out of the car without even a tear in my pantyhose.

I don’t know specifically how my guardian angel has helped me. But I know he has. And I am thankful to God for him and for all the angels. And I truly enjoyed researching for and writing about them in Battle for His Soul.

Story summary: Jarret West, a rich teenage boy, has been accustomed to having control over others and getting his way. So when his life begins to fall apart, his guardian angel Ellechial hopes now is the time for his conversion. He must be freed from the deep clutches of Deth-kye, the demon bent on seeing him in hell. The fate of several others depends upon Jarret’s conversion. Meanwhile, Jarret’s twin brother has joined a new prayer group and their prayer before the Blessed Sacrament has made Ellechial strong. Still, Deth-kye wins victory after victory. His weapons: emotions, vices and memories. Who will win the battle for Jarret’s soul?