(1) for their sanctity, the most beautiful and admirable of all qualities, and more deserving of reverence than intellectual abilities, or strength of character, or wealth, or natural benevolence;
(2) for the benefits we receive from them. God is the source of these, but the angels are His willing agents in these benefactions, and fulfil their part with zeal and affection; they act as our best friends; and our salvation, under God, depends to a considerable extent on the assistance we receive from them;
(3) their excellence, their high position in the spiritual order, and their resemblance to God claim recognition from us.
As we render filial honour to parents, civil honour to magistrates and monarchs, respect to age, to virtue, to talent; so are we bound to render religious honour to those who are the manifestations of the supernatural perfections of the Infinite God. This is a matter of strict duty for you. You must not allow any class of God’s creatures to pass without rendering to them what their character demands. Have you always paid due respect to so important a body of your fellow-creatures?
In what way ought the angels to be honoured?
(1) By remembrance of them, and by reflection on their qualities and their works, their fidelity to God and to us.
(2) By affections, arising from these thoughts, of respect for their greatness, congratulation on their happiness, admiration of their virtues, gratitude for their assistance, love in return for their love.
(3) By considering in detail and endeavouring to imitate their virtues — obedience, contentment, conformity to God’s will, zeal for His glory, patience with their wayward charges, their sweetness, purity, love, tranquillity, activity, and their constant union with their God.
(4) We should rely on the power of the angels’ intercession with God, for they always see His face and they merit to be heard for their holiness; we should ask them to help us in our needs, and to offer our prayers like vials of odours before the throne of God.
(5) We may honour our neighbour on account of the angel who is always with him, and the dignity he derives therefrom. Recur to the angels on all occasions as being your best friends, your natural protectors, advisers, advocates, assigned to you by God.
In our devotion to the angels we should be mindful of them all, and we shall be able to discover different motives for honouring and asking the assistance of each of their choirs. Principally we should honour our Angel Guardian with whom we have been directly associated by the Providence of God; it is his special duty to help us in all our necessities, and we have already received incalculable favours at his hands. We should also nourish a particular devotion to St. Michael. He is one of the very few whose name has been revealed to us; and he is associated with us as the supreme guardian of the Catholic Church, its protector against the rage of hell, the warrior of the Lord, and the prince of the hosts of heaven.
We may also select any special choir of the angels for particular homage on account of their proximity to God, or supremacy over His earthly kingdom, or for their special relation to God by their characteristic virtues, or the similarity of their functions to ours. By devotion to the angels we verify those words: “You are come to Mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the company of many thousands of angels . . . and to the spirits of the just made perfect” (Heb. xii. 22, 23).
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