Questions on the nature of angels

[Paul]

I suppose I don't understand Angels.
Why are there Angels?
Why doesn't just God hear and answer our prayers?

Is it He created them, for a similar reason to creating mankind?
And as He has created us to be vessels of His love, has He also similarly created the Angels?

I suppose it's hard to understand Angels, having never met any or lived as one or even among them, as we do as humans and know humanity being human ourselves.

I suppose then it's hard for me to direct my prayers to a Guardian Angel, not quite understanding it.

I've heard it said even Satan was once an Angel, and that there were fallen Angels, how can this be?
Are these Angels then capable of sin, or was this only at one stage, and what changed, are the good Angels now somehow different, just like the fallen ones are?
Was there first a fall for Angels, and was there some kind of heavenly state that the faithful Angels inherited?

Is heaven a physical place?

I suppose it's hard to understand these Angels flying about.
Is that really what they do, do they really have wings as represented in some paintings, or is this just mans imagination?

God hears our prayers doesn't He, God sees our hearts, God knows our thoughts.
I suppose I can't understand why there are Angels, where then is God?

Do Angels really hear our prayers and deliver them to God, knowing our prayers before God does, that can not be can it?

Is it that they do His will, and that God abides in them, as He is in us, when we submit to His love?

I suppose I'm just in a bit of confusion on the whole topic.
Can anyone help me understand better.

Thanks.
Paul

[Herman Blaydoe]

There are many, many things in this world that we are not aware of. Right now radio waves and radiation are passing through your body and you have no idea. Tiny creatures are probably crawling on your skin right now and you don't think about it. Life and death is going on under your feet and over your head and you don't see it. That doesn't mean it isn't there.

How can a person blind from birth understand colors? How do you explain music to the deaf? In our fallen nature we are no longer able to clearly perceive certain things, like the presence of God, and angels. Because we don't see them or even understand them does not mean they cannot or must not exist.

I don't know that angels have "wings" or any "physical" attributes by nature. These images are simply our attempts to show in terms we can conceptualize about things beyond our conception. Angels are immaterial, when they impose themselves upon our senses, it is often a frightening thing, because it is not something we are used to.

We believe that God created the Heavens and the earth and all things, visible and invisible. Angels are part of the "invisible" (to us) creation. Why did God create angels? I don't know, but I know He did, for His own reasons. Better minds than mine can perhaps take up some of the other questions you have.

[Paul]

Are Angels maybe like God fathers and mothers, only more intensely so?

The Akathist I am reading says:

'O holy Guardian Angel given by the Lord: Come pray for thy servant, whom thou didst accompany, preserve, and direct on all paths of life, and cry with us to the All-compassionate Saviour: ...'
- Akathist to Jesus Christ For a Loved One who has Fallen Asleep.

Were they there with them all throughout life, praying and whispering to their souls maybe?

I've never really thought on Angels before, just prayed to God.
I know the source of all comes from God.
But are they there to love, to do God's will.
It even shows us doesn't it, that there is another abode, where God's will is much more greatly done?
Where His love is much more greatly accomplished in another of His creations?

I do think why though, why not just God.
But why then even us.
I suppose it takes me back to that quote by Frederica Mathewes-Green:

'God wants us to be whole-hearted participants in his work, though he obviously doesn't need our help to do anything.
Perhaps this is like a mom having her children help her make cookies, though she could do it a lot more efficiently alone, God loves us. He wants us to participate in his work, because he wants to be in communion with us.'

Is this the same reason He created the Angels?
I don't know why they are more faithful than us though, although it seems at some stage maybe even some of them were unfaithful.

[Nina]

Dear Paul,

Here is a quote from this article on line (http://www.sfaturiortodoxe.ro/orthodox/orthodox_advices_angels.htm):


The ANGELS are the lowest of all the orders in the heavenly hierarchy and the closest to man. They aannounce the lesser mysteries and intentions of God and teach people to live virtuously and righteously before God. They are appointed to guard each of us who believe: they sustain virtuous people from fallen, and never leave us though we have sinned, but are always ready to help us, if only we ourselves want it.

All of the heavenly orders are also called by the common name "angels". Although they have different names according to their situation and grace given by God (as seraphim, cherubim, thrones and the rest of the orders), yet all in general are called angels, because the word "angel" is not a denomination of essence, but of service, as it is written: "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister" (Heb 1:14). But their service is different and not identical: each order has its own service; for the All-Wise Creator does not reveal the mystery of His design to all to the same degree, but from the one to the others, through the higher He enlightens the lower, revealing to them His will and commanding it to be as in the book of the Prophet Zachariah. There it is said that one angel, after conversing with the prophet, met another angel who ordered him to go again to the prophet and reveal the future fate of Jerusalem: "And behold, the angel that talked with me went forth and another angel went out to meet him, and said unto him, Run, speak to thes young man (that is, the prophet Zachariah), saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of mena and cattle therein: For I, saith the Lord will be unto her a wall of fire round about" (Zach 2:3-5).

Deliberating about this, St Gregory the Dialogist says, "When one angel says to the other: 'Run speak to this young man' there is no doubt that certain angels send others, that the lower ones are sent, that the higher send" (St Gegory the Dialogist, Interpretation of the Gospels, #4).

We find exactly the same thing in the prophecy of Daniel, that one angel orders another to interpret the vision to the prophet. From this it is evident that angels of higher orders reveal the divine will and intention of their Creator to angels of the lower orders, that they enlighten them and send them to people.

The Orthodox Church militant, being in need of the help of the angels, celebrates the Assembly of all the nine angelic orders with a special supplication, as is fitting, on the eighth day of the month of November (Nov 21 OS) ie. the ninth month, since all these nine orders of angels will gather on the day of the Terrible Judgment of the Lord, which the divine teachers of the Church call the eighth day. For they say, at the end of seven thousand years will begin as if an eighth day, "When the Son of man shall in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him" (as the Lord Himself foretold in the Gospel - Matt 25:31). "And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds." (Matt 24:31), ie. from the East, West, North, and South.

[Nina]

Dear Paul,

In addition there is this beautiful article (http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/death/angels2.aspx) on the topic.

Also Saint Nicolai Velimirovic has written something great that you may find here (http://www.serfes.org/orthodox/angels.htm).

Another informative article is here (http://aggreen.net/beliefs/the_angels.html).

Hope these are helpful. Please if you have further questions, do not hesitate to ask; and also to share your opinion.