Angel means "messenger." This is the main purpose God created the angels, to send them as messengers to serve the human race.

Since the beginning of the creation, angels have appeared to people to tell them about the will of God. Adam and Eve were banished by an angel with a flaming sword: "So He drove out the man; and He cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life." (Genesis 3:24)

Angels are intelligent; they serve God and glorify Him day and night. They are active spirits, and they let us know the will of God. As St. John of Damascus said: "An angel is an intelligent essence in perpetual motion, with free will, without a body, ministering to God, having obtained by grace an immortal nature.

Angels are countless in number, and of many different kinds. As St. Cyril of Jerusalem said, "We make mention of the angels, archangels, virtues, dominions, principalities, powers, and thrones...of the many faced cherubim. We make mention of the seraphim with two of their wings veiling their face, with two wings covering their feet, and with two wings flying while they exclaim: 'Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoath." We may be participants with the superterrestrial armies in the singing of their hymn.

We have to learn from the angels to glorify God, and do His will as St. Clement of Rome said: "Let our glorifying and our confidence be in Christ. Let us be subject to His will. Let us consider the whole multitude of His angels, and how they stand waiting to minister to His will."

Scriptural references about angels:
a. Genesis 3:24, 24:7, 28:12
b. Job 38:7
c. Psalms 90:11, 148:2
d. Matthew 18:10
e. Luke 1:11-20, 1:26-38, 2:13
f. Acts 5:19, 10:3-7, 12:7-15, 27:23-24
g. 1 Thessalonians 4:16
h. Colossians 1:16
i. Hebrews 1:14
j. Ephesians 1:21
k. Jude 9

By: Fr. Mikhail E. Mikhail, D. Min.