Magical incantations won’t earn you the help of the angels, says St. Augustine. What does earn us their help is trying to live a life as pure and good as theirs. If  we do that, we can live among the angels on earth, even though our eyes can’t see them. We must certainly not try, through the supposed mediation of demons, to make use of the good will or help of the gods, or rather of the good angels. In- stead, we... Read more

Even if you think you’re worshiping angels, says St. Augustine, the only beings that receive your sacrifice are devils. The angels who love God could never accept the honor that belongs only to their Lord. Some people say they are offering sacrifices to the higher celestial pow- ers, which are not devils, and imagine that the only difference between themselves and us is the name: they call those powers gods, and we call them angels. But the only beings that really present... Read more

The more a being loves God, says St. Augustine, the less that being wants any of the worship due to God alone. That’s  why, although angels are incomparably more powerful and pure than we are, we never worship them. As for the spiritual part of creation, it is either pious or impious: the pious being people and angels who are righteous, and who serve God in the right way; the impious being wicked people and angels, whom we also call devils.... Read more

In St. Augustine’s time, there were still many pagans who tried to find enlightenment in strange, sometimes  even hallucinogenic, rituals.  If  you see angels when you’re out of  your mind, says St. Augustine, remember that Satan can look like an angel, but he still wants to hurt you. As to those who perform these filthy cleansings by sacrilegious rites, and see in their initiated state (as Porphyry tells us further on, though we may question this vision) certain wonderfully lovely... Read more

The angels want us to be as happy as they are, says St. Augustine. That’s  why they refuse to let us worship them, but direct all our worship to God, the source of their own happiness. The angels look on us miserable mortals compassionately and tenderly, and wish us to become immortal and happy—these blessed and immortal spirits, who inhabit celestial dwellings, and rejoice in the communications of their Cre- ator’s fullness, firm in his eternity, assured in his truth, holy... Read more

St. Augustine says that the only reason demons seduced us into worshiping them was because they knew that worship belongs to God alone. The false gods, that is to say, the demons, which are lying angels, would never have required a temple, priesthood, sacrifice, and the other things connect- ed with these from their worshipers, whom they deceive, had they not known that these things were due to the one true God. When, therefore, these things are presented to God according... Read more

Even devils can sometimes perform apparent miracles, says St. Augustine, and if a rumor started that one of their own “philosophers”  had done the miracles in the Scriptures, you would hear the same people who laugh at the Bible shouting in triumph. If these objectors refuse to believe any narrative of a divine miracle, they must be refuted by another line of argument. In that case, they must not single out one particular miracle to be objected to, and called in... Read more