Angelology

Father Hardon’s writings on angelology examine the nature and mission of angels within Catholic theology. These articles cover guardian angels, fallen angels, spiritual warfare, divine providence, and the role of angels in salvation history.

Created Spirits

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. This issue of the Catholic Faith concentrates on the angels. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of understanding the role of angels in our lives. A good index of loyalty to the Catholic faith is the acceptance of angels as created by God. They are now living in […]

The Angels: Adorers of God

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. We commonly and correctly think of the angels as messengers from God to us. So they are. But before being messengers from God, the angels are adorers of God. Their principal role in heaven is to adore the Holy Trinity. This role of adoration runs through the whole Bible […]

The Angel of the Resurrection

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. We might expect the angels as messengers of the Lord to be present and active at all the significant periods of Christ’s visible history on earth. Nothing is more significant about the angel’s role in our lives than the role that they played in our Savior’s life. It was […]

Angel Popularity on the Rise

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Anyone who knows what is going on in America must admit that angelic popularity is growing by leaps and bounds. There was a time when angels were simply pictured winged creatures on Christmas cards. The dictionaries would use the word “angel” to describe a very kindly person. But things […]

The Angelic Messenger to the Gentiles

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. At the dawn of Christianity, an angel of the Lord was sent to the Virgin Mary to tell her that she was to be the mother of the Messiah. Since the Jews were the Chosen People of God, it was consistent with Divine Providence to have the Messiah born […]

The Angels in Bethlehem

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Surely, the most dramatic appearance of the angels in Sacred Scripture occurred on Christmas morning. St. Luke, at once the evangelist of Mary, the evangelist of the Holy Spirit, and the evangelist of the angels, had just finished describing the birth of the Savior. Christ was born in silence, […]

Angels – in Heaven, on Earth and in Hell

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Divine Revelation has established the existence of a created world of Spirits. Angels were created by God and are now living in Heaven, sympathetic and helpful to the needs of men, or in Hell where they exist to seduce the human race from allegiance to the Creator. The existence […]

The Good Angels Glorify God and Serve as His Messengers to the Human Race

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. God created the angels for one main purpose: to glorify the Holy Trinity. What needs to be stressed, however, is that the angels’ glorifying God includes serving His divine majesty. Our title for the present conference could be re-worded to say that: “The angels in heaven glorify God and […]

The Angels in Sacred Scripture

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Before we continue on our meditations on the angels, I think we should pause on this one mediation to see that angels are not merely Christian piety, or Christian poetry, or Christian devotion. The angels are not a luxury to Christianity. Angels belong to the heart of our Catholic […]

Angels in the History of the Church

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. This subject is an ocean. Angels are part of the history of the Church founded by Christ for the simple reason that angels are an integral part of Christianity. Given the magnitude of this topic, I decided to concentrate on the teaching of the Catholic Church from the first […]

Angels in the Life of Christ

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. The role of the angels in the life of Christ is more important than most of us recognize. We speak of the imitation of Christ and the following of Christ, without realizing that part of our following of the Savior is imitating His relationship to the angels. The subject […]

The Angels of the Ascension

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. The Holy Spirit could not have been more clear in revealing the role of the angels in the life of Jesus Christ. It was an angel who announced the Incarnation of the Son of God. It was angels who announced to the shepherds His birth in Bethlehem. It was […]

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