St. Michael and All Angels
“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.”—Psalm 91:11.
A few weeks ago, on September 29, we celebrated the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels.
The next-to-last day of September is always the Feast Day of St. Michael and All Angels. Above my desk in my home office, a carved stone hanging by my window bears a painted image of St. Michael with his sword. Michael is almost the first thing I see when I look up from my computer. St. Michael lives in stained glass, overcoming evil outside my church’s chapel. I give thanks for St. Michaels in my life—and for angels who have been by my side in troublesome times, lending me the courage to go on.
Angel Clarence in a Wonderful Life
I think of some of our favorite fictional angels. There is Angel Second Class Clarence Odbody, played by Henry Travers in Frank Capra’s timeless Christmas movie, It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). Clarence saves George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, from bankruptcy and suicide.
Whenever I hear a bell ring, I wonder whether an angel has just earned his wings!
Then there is my all-time favorite movie angel, the suave angel named Dudley, played to perfection by Cary Grant in the Samuel Goldwyn Christmas classic The Bishop’s Wife (1947). Dudley comes to save the life and marriage of Bishop Henry Brougham, played by David Niven. Loretta Young plays his wife, Julia.
Whenever I visit my Bishop’s office, I always look around to find where Dudley is.
As I engage in spiritual direction with people, I listen for whether they speak of “angels” in their lives—people they encounter over time, or who stand by them or guide them through challenging situations or around impossible obstacles. Angels are life-changing and life-giving. They are messengers and truth-tellers who see God in us and, as the angel Gabriel did to Mary, proclaim that God is in us—when we never had a clue.
Give thanks for the angels in your life. Then repay them by being a Dudley, a Clarence, a Michael—or another angel—to someone else you meet. This is called paying it forward.
Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/