Friday, September 30, 2005
ANGELS
We Catholics have four with names: Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, Lucifer.
The Tablet article names more, and the names come from a visionary, Mrs. Bitterlich.
There is some evidence that the Vatican condemned some of the beliefs of this religious order but not the order itself. First:
Decree on the doctrine and customs of the Association «Opus Angelorum» (Decretum de doctrina et usibus particularibus consociationis cui nomen «Opus Angelorum»), June 6, 1992
AAS 84 (1992) 805-806
EV 13, 978-983; LE 5475; Dokumenty, II, 30
That is taken from the Vatican website, but the document is not online at the Vatican website.
It does appear to be online here, but the source is questionable since it seems to be using the material of Little Pebble.
Bro. David Steindl-Rast's website, gratefulness.org, has a webpage devoted to angels and animals.
On that webpage he says that
Our focus here is not on thankfulness, though, but on gratefulness. Animals teach us gratefulness, the art of being in the moment. We humans half cling to the past, half stretch out to the future, with little of us left to enjoy the now. Animals are fully present. Through their unconditional acceptance of each moment, they sometimes draw even us into it.
When humans learn to be gratefully present every moment, they become angels. It’s not the wings that make the angel, but the message of courageous presence and creative acceptance, no matter what the moment brings: “Fear not!”
It may be a nice thought, but angels and mankind are different beings and man does not become an angel, nor vice versa. Nor do we believe that animals have the ability to be grateful in a human sense. The human being has a soul. The animal does not. That is Catholic cosmology and doctrine. So the idea that animals can teach us to be grateful--and one would suppose to praise God--is a stretch.
It would not, however be a stretch for a person of the Jewish faith--at least not a follower of the teaching of Sabbatai Zevi:
Jewish (Oral) Scripture teaches that animals, even the "tiniest" among them (i.e., insects) -- like mankind and even the angels -- have a soul, otherwise how could they know God to "bless" Him?
Animals, like mankind and the angels, speak and understand Hebrew, otherwise how could they praise God with the Hebrew words, "Boruch Yahweh l'olam, omayin v'omayin" (Psalms 89:53)?
Animals, again like mankind and the angels, know the Torah, otherwise how could they quote from the Psalms?
For this reason, it falls upon man to "awaken" and "raise up" the soul of animals, through the kavannah (mystical intention) of Neo-Sabbatian Tikkun, in order to repair the Face of God and return the universe to its pre-creational state of unity.
The Donmeh West website where that quote appears is dedicated to the beliefs of the heretical Jewish mystics Sabbatai Zevi and Jacob Frank. Among Sabbatian concepts is the idea that since God brings good out of evil, man must do evil in order to force the hand of God.
Bro. David Steindl-Rast takes part in Monastic Interreligious Dialogue. Does his discussion of angels at his gratefulness.org website represent a bleeding over of Jewish mysticism that is confusing Catholic theology?
When Vladimir Soloviev, whom John Paul II often cited, studied the Kabbalah, a vision of Sophia appeared to him. The Opus Angelorum beliefs discussed in The Tablet article came from a visionary experience. Sabbatai Zevi's heretical teachings came from a visionary experience.
There are fallen angels.
Connect the dots.
