Angels know and do God’s will immediately, Angels: Day 023

Angels know and do God’s will immediately

God spoke the law to humans in a way we could understand—word by word, syllable by syllable, each sound taking up the time necessary for us to hear it. But the angels, St. Augustine says, receive God’s instructions directly in their minds, and they instantly accomplish what God wills them to do.

And so it has pleased Divine Providence, as I have said, and as we read in the Acts of the Apostles (7:53) that the law demanding the worship of one God should be given by the disposition of angels.

But among them the person of God Himself visibly appeared—not, of course, in his proper substance, which is always invisible to mortal eyes, but by the infallible signs given by creation in obedience to its Creator. He also used the words of human speech, speaking them syllable by syllable one after the other, though in his own nature he speaks not in a bodily but in a spiritual way—not to sense, but to the mind—not in words that occupy time, but, so to speak, eternally, neither beginning to speak nor coming to an end.

And what He says is accurately heard, not by the bodily but by the mental ears of his ministers and messengers, who are immortally blessed in the enjoyment of his unchangeable truth. Whatever directions they receive in some unspoken way, they execute them without delay or difficulty in the sensible and visible world. –St. Augustine, City of God, 10.15

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

For angels, understanding and obedience are instantaneous. My human abilities are

more limited, but could I at least start to do God’s will as soon as I understand what it is?

CLOSING PRAYER

Holy angels, who worship beside me in adoration of the one True God, the Blessed Trinity: Help me to be as prompt and unhesitating as you are in my obedience to the law and the directives of the Lord and his Church.

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