FEAST OF MICHAEL, GABRIEL AND RAPHAEL, ARCHANGELS- (2) The Song of Songs by Richard of Saint Victor

 29 September

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29



JOHN 1:47-51


FEAST OF MICHAEL, GABRIEL AND RAPHAEL, ARCHANGELS


Second Reading

From a commentary on the Song of Songs by Richard of Saint Victor (Cap 4 PL 196, 417-418)

God defends his chosen ones in the Church, in troubled times he is himself their shield, and through the watchful care of angels he protects them. He presents the angels to his own as servants and messengers, to further their salvation, to report their needs, and to carry their prayers. Even though he himself sees and understands the situation of each person, he still wishes to be told of it by his angels, in order to make known and show more clearly his love and consideration for humankind by his use of such worthy and beloved messengers.

Do we realize how much they desire our salvation and long to have us as their companions? Who can have any idea of the love and care with which they keep watch over those entrusted to them; how they stir up the listless and urge to greater zeal the fervent and attentive; how they make excuses for sins so as to bring only good deeds to God's notice? And when they see a soul burning with great desire and longing for God with pure intention, do we realize how they love that soul, rejoice with it, visit it, and hasten to and fro between that soul and God?

The angels are friends of the bridegroom, so they listen to the soul's words, and make them known to the bridegroom. The soul's words are its desires, which the friends, that is the angels, listen to and delight in. They make them known, and they invite the soul to come; they console it, and advise it to seek and knock, because anyone who seeks finds, and to anyone who knocks the door is opened.

Meanwhile, until the bridegroom comes, they frequently visit such a fervent soul, and by an increase of grace prepare it more fully for his arrival. They draw its thoughts toward a perception of their presence, and an awareness of their friend¬ship, so that through this knowledge it may advance to divine knowledge.

Thus the soul searching for God is found by the blessed angels, and after going round the city in its quest, deserves to be approached by them. It sees them coming to meet it and is taken in charge by them. In fact, they come before the bride¬groom, manifesting their presence and revealing themselves, for being angels of light they accompany the Light, and the soul, flooded with light, is both illuminated and moved, so that it perceives their coming and is conscious of their presence.  

A Word in Season, Monastic Lectionary pp. 185-6

RICHARD OF SAINT VICTOR (d.1173) was a Scottish or Irish canon known for his piety and zeal who became prior of Saint Victor at Paris under a lax and spendthrift English abbot. As the author of Benjamin minor and Benjamin major he was one of the great mystical writers of the middle ages, so that the originality of his treatise on the Trinity, which influenced Alexander of Hales, tends to be overlooked. The bulk of his writing was connected with contemplation and shows traces of Pseudo-Denis. He influenced Bonaventure and the Franciscan school.