Angels visit when you’re alone; Angels: Day 219

Angels visit when you’re alone; Angels: Day 219 February 27, 2017

angels_sulpicius_severusSulpitius Severus visited the holy hermits of the desert in Egypt. They told him a story of one particular hermit who was so intent on his devotion that he never allowed any human visitors at all. He told the one man who had visited him in all those years, that if you are frequently visited by mortals, the angels wont visit you.

I visited two monasteries of St. Anthony, which are at the present day occupied by his disciples. I also went to that place in which the most blessed Paul, the first of the hermits, had his abode. I saw the Red Sea and the ridges of Mount Sinai, the top of which almost touches heaven, and cannot be reached by any hu- man effort.

They said that an anchorite was living somewhere within its recesses. I tried very hard to see him for a long time, but I couldn’t. He had been removed from all human fellowship for nearly fifty years, and wore no clothes, but was covered with bristles growing on his own body—though, by divine gift, he didn’t know of his own nakedness. Though pious men often wanted to visit him, rushing into the pathless wilderness, he shunned all meeting with his kind.

About five years before I got there, they said, he had granted an interview to only one man; and I believe that man obtained the favor through the power of his faith. The two of them talked together for quite a while. They said that when the man asked why he shunned all human contact so carefully, the recluse replied that the man who was frequently visited by mortals like himself could not often be visited by angels. From this, not without reason, the report had spread, and was accepted by multitudes, that that holy man enjoyed angelic fellowship. –Sulpitius Severus, Dialogue 1, 17

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

Do I find enough opportunities to be alone for prayer and contemplation? Do I acknowledge the presence of my angel?

CLOSING PRAYER

Guardian Angel, may I know peace through your companionship. May I pray well through your instruction.

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