Carried to heaven by angels; Angels: Day 326

A martyr wrote down a dream or vision he had while waiting in prison. In it we see how the very early Christians imagined their deaths: angels carry them to a happy meeting with their departed friends.

We had been martyred, and we had gone forth from the flesh, and we were being carried by four angels into the east, though their hands didn’t touch us. We were not floating on our backs looking up, but as if we were ascending a gentle slope.

At last, when we were set free, we saw the first boundless light. “Perpetua,” I said (she was beside me), “this is what the Lord promised us! We’ve received the promise!”

And while we were carried by those same four angels, we saw a vast space like a pleasure-garden, with rose bushes and every kind of flower. The trees were as tall as a cypress, and their leaves were falling incessantly.

In that pleasure-garden four other angels appeared, brighter than the previous ones. When they saw us, they gave us honor, and said admiringly to the rest of the angels, “Here they are! Here they are!”

Those four angels who bore us, greatly afraid, put us down. We walked on foot about an eighth of a mile in a broad path. There we found Jocundus and Saturninus and Artaxius, who had been burnt alive in the same persecution; and Quintus, another martyr who had died in prison. We asked them where the rest were. And the angels said to us, “Come first, enter and greet your Lord.”

–Martyrdom  of Saints Perpetua and Felicity,  4.1

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

Will the angels point me out to each other and greet me with joy and wonder? Even if I’m not called to be a martyr, is there some responsibility that I’m disappointing the angels by shirking?

CLOSING PRAYER

My Guardian Angel, help me to face the death that God has appointed to me with courage, with peace, and with perseverance in faith, hope, and love. May  the angels lead me into paradise.

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