Guardian Angel … Say this. Do you feel like this isn't just a meaningless set of letters? That power is hidden in this name, that it breathes with something that does not fit into the framework of our ordinary, material world?
That this name is fanned by the grace of God? You remember: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1: 1). You have noticed how amazingly some words affect us, how prayers affect the soul - like oil, fall on the heart. But so only with those words that from God, only in calling upon Himself, we receive an extraordinary strength that helps us to overcome difficulties, to pass trials, not to despair, to survive. And to help us in our sorrows and misfortunes, our guardian angels are given to us from God. But, unfortunately, being mired in the bustle of the world, moving away from God, we forgot about that Word, that God is with us, that He hears and sees everything. That His servants - the angels - lead us along this thorny path. Whether we like it or not, they are by our side.
THE HEAVENLY FORCES OF GOD
Who are the guardian angels? How do we learn from religious sources that God created the universe and life in it. But before the creation of the world, God created his helpers, his servants - angels, who already praised Him and shouted with joy when He laid the foundation of the Universe (Job 38: 7)..
It is revealed to us that the Heavenly Forces have different ministries, different gifts and make up their own hierarchy. In the Apostle Paul we find mention of the thrones of rulership, authority, dominion, power, archangels - the highest angels.
We also know the names of some of them Michael (like God) - the archangel of all the Heavenly Host. First, the keeper of the chosen people of Israel, and then the whole Church of Christ, this new Israel. Michael is the patron saint of all the soldiers of Christ, which means all Christians in general, because at baptism we are called the soldiers of God. The name of the second archangel is Gabriel (evangelist of God). It was he who appeared to the prophet Daniel and explained the visions of the events to come, and the Blessed Virgin brought the news of the birth of the Savior from her, and to the righteous Zechariah of the birth of John the Baptist. From David we learn the name of another archangel - Raphael (the healing of God), who was assigned to him as an assistant and guarded David, appearing to him in the form of an old man.
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In addition, other names of the highest archangels are revealed to us - Uriel (the light or fire of God), Selafiel (the prayer book of God), Yehudiel (the glorifier of God), Varakhail (the blessing of God), Jeremiel (the instiller of good thoughts). The prophet Ezekiel writes about the Cherubim that their whole body - and their backs, and their hands, and their wings … are full of eyes (Ezek. 10:22).
At baptism, the Lord gives each of us a guardian angel to support, to help our souls in the temptations of the world, “keep you in all your ways” (Psalm 90). The Scripture says that angels are ministering spirits sent to ministry for those who have the inheritance of salvation, therefore when we offend a person, we at the same time hurt Heaven, we are told: “Look, do not despise any of these little ones; for I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven”(Matthew 18:10).
The highest joy for angels is to serve God and man, and so they do it, that sometimes it seems to people that the Lord Himself is acting. Angels are great jealous of the glory of God and the eradication of all evil: “Lord! Did You not sow a good seed in Your field? Where does the tares come from?.. Do you want us to go and pick them? (Matt. 13:27 - 13:28). But only the Creator knows what has been sown, and only He knows when to sow, when to reap and when to choose the tares. In fact, the invisible world is in no way inferior to the visible in diversity and possibilities, on the contrary, they - the heavenly inhabitants - have access to much of what we dare not even dream of. But this is available to them so that they can help us, people, therefore we call on them to help us.
BIBLICAL LEGEND OF ANGEL
There is a biblical legend. The Lord had a beloved angel sitting on the right side of the Lord's throne. An angel endowed with tremendous power and capabilities is Dennitsa. But Dennitsa was not only the most powerful, he also had immense pride, and he could not understand in any way - why did the Lord create such unreasonable creatures as people? What are they to Him? And different dreams began to overwhelm him, what kind of universe he would have created. And he wanted to be the First on a par with the Son of God, and therefore with God himself. And he began to embarrass the rest of the angels, and many of them, those in whom pride was also strong, listened to him. And when the time came and the Lord called all his ranks to worship His Son, Dennitsa did not bow his head, did not repent of his pride, of his rebellion, did not recognize the Son on a par with the Father. And some of the foolish angels followed his example. And then there was a great Heavenly battle, and Dennitsa and her army were cast down from heaven to the poor sinful earth. And the time was appointed by the Lord - the earth will be under the rule of darkness until the day of the Last Judgment, when the Great Battle will take place again, in which darkness will perish. Since then, Dennitsa began to be called the devil (slanderer) and Satan (apostate), and those of the angels who followed him are called demons, or demons. It is no coincidence that Satan is called the enemy of mankind and the father of lies - he not only gave birth to lies, deceiving the first people, he "rewarded" us with the main vice that poisons our existence, infected us with the original sin - pride.when the Great Battle will take place again, in which darkness will perish. Since then, Dennitsa began to be called the devil (slanderer) and Satan (apostate), and those of the angels who followed him are called demons, or demons. It is no coincidence that Satan is called the enemy of mankind and the father of lies - he not only gave birth to lies, deceiving the first people, he "rewarded" us with the main vice that poisons our existence, infected us with the original sin - pride.when the Great Battle will take place again, in which darkness will perish. Since then, Dennitsa began to be called the devil (slanderer) and Satan (apostate), and those of the angels who followed him are called demons, or demons. It is no coincidence that Satan is called the enemy of mankind and the father of lies - he not only gave birth to lies, deceiving the first people, he "rewarded" us with the main vice that poisons our existence, infected us with the original sin - pride.
Contrary to popular belief, original sin is not associated with the flesh, carnal sins are abominable, but not dangerous. Spiritual sins are dangerous, because a selfish, proud person has less opportunity to repent, more temptation to ossify in his sin - to challenge the Creator, as Dennitsa once challenged. And pride is the very sin from which all others - both spiritual and carnal - grow. As the God-bearing fathers (many of whom are canonized) believed and as the church teaches us, we must remember that there is a constant struggle for us between God's forces and the forces of Satan. Therefore, we must always be on the lookout - to control our thoughts, because everything begins with thoughts. A person who has allowed unrighteous thoughts, who has allowed them to take possession of his heart, imperceptibly for himself ceases to control his words, and then his actions.
GOD KNOWS IT
The surest road to hell is an inconspicuous road, gentle, without sharp drops, a road with a well-worn track. It is very easy to succumb to the temptation of laziness - to allow yourself a little bit today, a little more tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, and a month later - look at yourself in the mirror and do not recognize that lowered, envious, bored, lustful proud man who will look at you with stupid indifference … God knows it. Therefore, he gives us great help and support in the person of his angels and saints, so that we do not get lazy, so that through them we remember our duty, our obligations to God and people. You probably yourself noticed that our duty (it does not matter - in relation to God, to close or distant relatives, and often in general to strangers, to the country) runs counter to our desires, with what we personally wanted at the moment.
Often we give in to duty only after an internal struggle under the motto "Why should I ?!" The answer to this question, as a rule, is a monosyllabic statement that does not explain anything to us, but nevertheless encourages us, despite our discontent, to act at the behest of this indisputable inner conviction: "I just have to - that's all." Even without an exclamation mark. An angel convinces us that we must brush aside our selfishness, our laziness and pride and do what is pleasing to God and ultimately useful to us.
Therefore, Satan does not sleep, as soon as we are baptized and the Lord appoints his servant to us, he - the enemy of man - immediately puts a demon to us - to tempt and lead astray.
Our angel is behind the right shoulder, and the demon is behind the left. You yourself have probably noticed that often a dialogue is going on in you, the right words and correct, useful thoughts come from somewhere on the right, and bad, impure thoughts and desires appear on the left, as a counterbalance. This situation has been noticed by people for a long time, therefore, everything that we do good, kind, useful, is called righteous. Therefore, the right side is considered cleaner, we cross from right to left, thus purifying ourselves, throwing all the filth on the demon. And we know that the army of Satan is also numerous, and this is what the apostle had in mind when he said that “our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spirits of evil in heaven” (Eph. 6:12).
And contrary to the existing opinion, the fall of the angels was accomplished once and for all - some angels were immediately confirmed in loyalty to the Creator, while others fell away from him. As the church says: now the first cannot fall, just like the second, to rise, for the disembodied forces - both higher and lower - it is impossible to swap places. Both the demon and the angel are assigned to us for the entire duration of our life path. They lead us: one tries to harm as much as possible, the other - to correct this harm.
They are constantly fighting for our soul, and this struggle does not stop even outside of earthly life, because even after our death, God left us a chance to atone, correct our mistakes - to repent and return to the Father after the Last Judgment. Until then, we all have a chance to change, to “correct our feet” before the Lord, to become pleasing to Him. And in this difficult matter, our guardian angels have been given to help us, to whom we can and must turn. We should joyfully greet the countless number of disembodied helpers of ours in the struggle against sin and the devil and ask them: "Yes, with your prayers, protect us with a shelter for the krill of the immaterial of your glory," because prayer is the true weapon in the struggle against evil. We have been given a true testimony of this - the Apostle Jude in his epistle shows how the Archangel Michael, in his dispute with Satan, did not dare to pronounce the reproachful judgment,but he said: "May the Lord forbid you" (Jude 1: 9). And these prayer words were followed by a blow of crushing force: “I saw Satan falling from Heaven like lightning. I hereby give you the power to tread on snakes and scorpions and on all the power of the enemy, and nothing will harm you, "the Lord tells us. And just as visions appeared to the prophets and apostles about how much stronger those who are for us, those who are against us, so we must be sure that "the angel of the Lord will take up arms around those who fear God and deliver them" (Psalm 33).those who are against us, so we must be sure that "the angel of the Lord will take up arms around those who fear God and will deliver them" (Psalm 33).those who are against us, so we must be sure that "the angel of the Lord will take up arms around those who fear God and will deliver them" (Psalm 33).
And we must also remember what is the power of angelic prayer, what is the power of angelic humility, trust in God and good-natured opposition to the enemy. So, God gives us protection and help through his angels, but this does not at all mean that we, having been baptized (do not forget - the Lord gives his angel only by baptism), we can rest, knowing and believing in our guardian. By no means, because having baptized, we not only become closer to God, receiving from Him protection and hope for the Kingdom of Heaven. We also become farther from Satan, not so susceptible to his attacks, which means we are more disgusting to him, which causes him to take active actions against us, that is, against God. But as already mentioned - much is impossible for man, for God everything is possible (Matt. 19:26), therefore we need to be strong and remember that everything that is temptation from the devil is a test from God,but as we know, God does not give trials beyond his powers. Therefore, we have nothing to fear.
This is, in a brief overview, the canonical church concept of angels, of their creation, of their ministry, of fallen angels, of the struggle between the forces of Good and Evil. Now you know that from the position of the church, we receive a guardian angel only upon baptism, which is quite fair - every good must be earned, and to have an angel appointed by God, you must agree, is a great blessing. Fortunately, the Heavenly host is very vast; in addition to the ethereal creatures created before the beginning of the world, it was replenished and, thank God, replenished with the souls of the righteous and martyrs, those people who, with their godly life, deserved a place there - in Heaven, at His Throne. They are helpers for our souls and intercessors before the Lord. The Church deliberately does not consider them angels, despite Christ's words that after death those who deserve the Kingdom of Heaven “will be like angels” (Mark 12.25),the church appeals with this very statement, emphasizing - after death, thus clearly distinguishing between angels and saints. For the first are disembodied immortal creatures, and the second are people who were righteous during life, but still mortal, which means that they are not angels.
There is also a hierarchy of angels in the Muslim religion. Four angels are considered to be closest to Allah - Jabrail (Jibral), Mikal, Israel (Azrael) and Isfail. Jabrail is a messenger from Allah to the prophets. He appeared to the Prophet Muhammad (FOUNDER OF ISLAM) and through him transmitted to the world the Quran Seal of Allah, the holy book for all Muslims. Dzhabrail appeared to the righteous more than once and conveyed the messages of Allah to them, he is a messenger, a mentor, not without reason his name means “holy spirit”. Mikal, according to legend, was the first of the Supreme Beings who bowed to a person, thereby recognizing his creation by Allah. Therefore, it is still believed that every mortal can turn to Mikal for help. Mikal was also the one who opened Muhammad's chest and cleansed him. During the battle of the Muslims with the Meccans at Badr, Mikal came to the rescue first. His name is widely used in Muslim spells. Israel is the Angel of Death. Allah brought him closer to himself because he showed special steadfastness in extracting clay to create the first man: he snatched a sufficient amount from the resisting earth. Therefore, Israel is recognized as the winner of death, he knows about the fate of every person, but does not know the day of his death. Israel appears to a person after flying around a leaf with the name of a mortal from a tree standing at the throne of Allah, in order to separate the soul from the body. And no matter how much a person resists (and this is possible), Israel always comes out victorious - takes the soul to the forefathers. Isfail passes the decisions of Allah to the rest of the angels and is the messenger of the Last Judgment, he will announce to the world that this day has come, that the dead can rise again. Allah brought him closer to himself because he showed special steadfastness in extracting clay to create the first man: he snatched a sufficient amount from the resisting earth. Therefore, Israel is recognized as the winner of death, he knows about the fate of every person, but does not know the day of his death. Israel appears to a person after flying around a leaf with the name of a mortal from a tree standing at the throne of Allah, in order to separate the soul from the body. And no matter how much a person resists (and this is possible), Israel always comes out victorious - takes the soul to the forefathers. Isfail passes the decisions of Allah to the rest of the angels and is the messenger of the Last Judgment, he will announce to the world that this day has come, that the dead can rise again. Allah brought him closer to himself because he showed special steadfastness in extracting clay to create the first man: he snatched a sufficient amount from the resisting earth. Therefore, Israel is recognized as the winner of death, he knows about the fate of every person, but does not know the day of his death. Israel appears to a person after flying around a leaf with the name of a mortal from a tree standing at the throne of Allah, in order to separate the soul from the body. And no matter how much a person resists (and this is possible), Israel always comes out victorious - takes the soul to the forefathers. Isfail passes the decisions of Allah to the rest of the angels and is the messenger of the Last Judgment, he will announce to the world that this day has come, that the dead can rise again.plucked enough from the resisting ground. Therefore, Israel is recognized as the winner of death, he knows about the fate of every person, but does not know the day of his death. Israel appears to a person after flying around a leaf with the name of a mortal from a tree standing at the throne of Allah, in order to separate the soul from the body. And no matter how much a person resists (and this is possible), Israel always comes out victorious - takes the soul to the forefathers. Isfail passes the decisions of Allah to the rest of the angels and is the messenger of the Last Judgment, he will announce to the world that this day has come, that the dead can rise again.plucked enough from the resisting ground. Therefore, Israel is recognized as the winner of death, he knows about the fate of every person, but does not know the day of his death. Israel appears to a person after flying around a leaf with the name of a mortal from a tree standing at the throne of Allah, in order to separate the soul from the body. And no matter how much a person resists (and this is possible), Israel always comes out victorious - takes the soul to the forefathers. Isfail passes the decisions of Allah to the rest of the angels and is the messenger of the Last Judgment, he will announce to the world that this day has come, that the dead can rise again.to separate the soul from the body. And no matter how much a person resists (and this is possible), Israel always comes out victorious - takes the soul to the forefathers. Isfail passes the decisions of Allah to the rest of the angels and is the messenger of the Last Judgment, he will announce to the world that this day has come, that the dead can rise again.to separate the soul from the body. And no matter how much a person resists (and this is possible), Israel always comes out victorious - takes the soul to the forefathers. Isfail passes the decisions of Allah to the rest of the angels and is the messenger of the Last Judgment, he will announce to the world that this day has come, that the dead can rise again.
As you can see, Islam in terms of the hierarchy of the higher heavenly forces is very much in common with the more ancient religion - Christianity and borrows a lot from it. This applies not only to angels, but also to saints. Muslims have a ziyara - a pilgrimage to the graves of saints (wali), where pilgrims pray and read suras of the Koran, distribute alms, make a prayer round, decorate the grave, and make sacrifices. Thus, Muslims enlist the help of the saint to whom the ziyar rite is dedicated, his blessing, he becomes their patron and intercessor before Allah. In general, Muslim saints - wali - mediators between people and Allah, prayer books and intercessors, during their lifetime - known for their righteous behavior ascetics and Sufis. In North Africa, they are called marabuts. They, like Christian saints,endowed with the ability to influence the lives of people, to warn, help, give offspring or health, to get rid of trouble and even raise the dead.
However, the topic of our article is slightly different. Therefore, in the future, with the permission of believers and having secured His blessing, we will try to use the word angel to denominate all the other human patrons, of whom there are many, remembering that the word “angel” itself means “messenger”; and, arguing its use by the fact that in modern language there is no more capacious concept in cases when it comes to the guardians and patrons of the human race, for, no matter how deep the religious tradition, there were times when all of humanity worshiped pagan gods, however had patrons or angels.
So, we know where the very concept of an angel came from, now we would like to run a little ahead and tell you that in this article we will tell you about our patrons - the saints whose name we bear, the souls of deceased relatives, the spirits of nature. According to one of the existing astrological teachings, and the fate of a person is largely determined by his name, it is an intermediary between a person and the subtle world, determines the boundaries of the spiritual being of each specific person. It is believed that the personality is free in its self-determination, but the name "sets the tone" for the direction itself, clearly limiting the person to the poles - the upper, positive, containing the perfect human image; and to the lower ones - carrying a destructive, absolutely opposite charge of the divine truth that is the essence of our soul.
MODERN ASTROLOGY
Each person in his life experiences at certain periods the influence of one or another astrological pole, which is embedded in his name. Depending on this, we are closer to God, then to the devil. In order to make it easier for us to adhere to the “upper limit” of our name, saints, whose names we bear, have been appointed to help. Our ancestors were much closer to the Creator, therefore they honored and observed many of those traditions, about which we now, if we have an idea, it is very vague. For example, at the birth of a child, he was necessarily called the name of the saint on whose day he was born, or the name of the closest saint revered according to the church calendar. How many of us are doing this now? But the established tradition is not accidental, parents, having named the baby in honor of the saint, thus, as it were, enlisted his support,his patronage for his child and believed that he would protect the child from many troubles and temptations. Modern astrology fully supports the ancient tradition, and this is almost the only of the spheres to which great importance is attached - both by the church and by astrological science, and in relation to which priests and astrologers, if not unanimous, are more tolerant of each other. In earlier times, it was widely believed that unbaptized babies were most susceptible to attacks by evil spirits, which gave rise to an attitude towards Baptism as a protective rite that had to be performed as soon as possible.and in relation to which the priests and astrologers, if not unanimous, are more tolerant of each other. In earlier times, it was widely believed that unbaptized babies were most susceptible to attacks by evil spirits, which gave rise to an attitude towards Baptism as a protective rite that had to be performed as soon as possible.and in relation to which the priests and astrologers, if not unanimous, are more tolerant of each other. In earlier times, it was widely believed that unbaptized babies were most susceptible to attacks by evil spirits, which gave rise to an attitude towards Baptism as a protective rite that had to be performed as soon as possible.
Numerous horrific stories circulated among the people about the unfortunate fate of children's souls who passed away unbaptized and had no peace in the afterlife. The only way to calm the poor soul was by baptism, which is why such children were buried at crossroads, where passers-by could baptize them. In addition to our birthday, we must know the name day - the day when our spiritual namesake, our guardian and prayer book for our soul is honored. Knowing this date and celebrating it gives hope, and some confidence that our patron will more mercifully look at us from the throne of God and, therefore, more often hear our requests for help. There are a lot of calendars based on the church, which indicate the dates of thesesomeism, allowing us not to miss such an important event for our spiritual life.
It is never too late to enlist the patronage of your saint, especially if you are a baptized person, which in our time, thank God, is far from uncommon - the pagan fear of the afterlife prompted our relatives to baptize babies even at a time when the church and religion were considered nothing else, as opium for the people. However, it remains to admit that the percentage of those who are not baptized is noticeably lower than that of the “soldiers of God”. A completely different aspect - how many of the baptized people believe and worship their religion, but we will leave the discussion of this topic to people who are much more versed in this area.