You will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending. Jn 1:51

Christmas Gift - Introduction

Day Twelve of Christmas

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From: DGO <noreply@evzo.org>
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Subject: The Daily Gospel

Saturday, 05 January 2013

Saturday before Epiphany

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 1:43-51.  ....Jesus answered and said to him, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this."  And he said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

Commentary of the day : 

William of Saint-Thierry (c.1085-1148), Benedictine, then a Cistercian monk 
Meditations, VI, 3-4 ; SC 324 (trans. ©Cistercian publications, 1970) 

"You will see the sky opened"

If on earth we see two or three gathered together in your name with you, Lord, in their midst... what are we to say of that place where you have gathered your saints, who have “made a covenant with you by sacrifices”, and where “the heavens” you have made “proclaim your righteousness” (Ps 50[49],5-6)?

For that Beloved Disciple of yours was not the only one to find the way to heaven, nor was the open door revealed to him alone (Rev 4,1)... Out of your own mouth to all and openly you have proclaimed: "I am the door; if anyone enters in by me, he shall be saved" (Jn 10,9). You are the door, then, Lord; and when you say: "if anyone enters in by me," you open, apparently, to all who will. 

But of what use is it to us who are on earth to see the door in heaven standing open, when we cannot get up there? Saint Paul answers thus: "He who ascends is the same also as he who descended" (Eph 4,9). Who is he? He is love. For love in us mounts up to you, O Lord... because the love in you comes down to us. You, who loved us, you came down to us; by loving you we shall mount up to you. You who yourself declared: "I am the door," by your own self I pray you, open yourself to us that you may show more clearly what house you open, and when you open, and to whom.

http://happycatholic.blogspot.co.uk/2009_03_01_archive.html

This Just In and Going Straight by the Bedside

Angels and Their Mission by Cardinal Jean Daniélou

All it took was reading the introduction, so readable, so logical (you know that grabs me!) to make this the next theology book for my spare time.

Here's the description ... I am really looking forward to reading this.

From St. Augustine to John Henry Newman, the greatest among the saints and men of God have lived on familiar terms with the angels; and the Church has always accorded them a very large place in her theology.Recent theologians have dwelt on dry questions about the nature of the angels, but the early Fathers of the Church, with the memory of Jesus fresh in their minds (and of the angels of whom He spoke often) were fascinated with the energetic action of the angels among men and the ways in which the angels have carried out that mission from the instant of Creation through the time of Jesus; and how they will continue their work even unto the end of time.
From the works of these early Fathers of the Church, the late French Cardinal Jean Daniélou has drawn forth threads of knowledge and wisdom which he has here woven into a lucid and bright tapestry that shows us who the ministering angels really are, and how—in every instant and in every way—they are working for your salvation and mine.
Here you’ll find no sentimental cherubs: the Fathers knew that majesty and power cloak actual angels, which is why God gave them the formidable tasks of shepherding not only souls, but entire nations, and the motions of the entire material universe itself.
Open these pages to meet the glorious angels as they were known by the Church’s greatest saints and theologians: Origen and Eusebius, and Sts. Basil, Ambrose, Methodius, Gregory of Nyssa, Clement of Alexandria, and John Chrysostom (among others).