Angels | Blogger Priest

The Dimensions & Appearance of Heaven

Posted on August 29, 2025 by Father Joe

Where is heaven? How big is heaven? What does it look like? Many past believers imagined heaven in the sky, particularly since Jesus ascended and Mary was assumed into heaven. There is also the biblical presumption that hell or Hades is under the earth. Artists have imagined heaven with cathedral like buildings, where the streets are paved with gold and everything is illumined with an interior light. As for how big, we imagine a vastness further than the eye can see. God would certainly insure enough space for all who would call it home. While God and the angels as spirits take up no space or extension; Jesus and the Blessed Mother have glorified bodies, just as the saints will possess. These bodies will have to reside somewhere. We sometimes speak of a new heaven and a new earth. However, I doubt there will ever be a celestial surveyor who could determine the boundaries of heaven or measure the jurisdiction. How big is it? It is big enough. I have often pondered the question in reference to our final end. We will live within the Trinity. Any way we turn, we will see God.

Physicists speak about the relativity of time and space. It is my supposition that when it comes to heaven, this relativity is taken to another level entirely with a signification hinted in the sacraments. When we speak of the Eucharist, we assert that Christ is present in his person and in his saving activity. The entire paschal mystery (our Lord’s betrayal, scourging, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension) is made present in the liturgical action and in the consecrated species. Just as a taste of heaven can be condensed to the sacrament, we might imagine heaven as a spiritual gravity well, where the providence of God is fully realized and we are offered a share in eternal life. This new signification or meaning makes the question about size inconsequential. All of creation and salvation history meets in this singularity of the kingdom. One might argue that material creation mimics this situation with its initial singularity, the release of energy with the big bang, and then the unfolding of the universe. God sustains both his material and spiritual creation.

Angels are discussed as spiritual creatures without physical bodies. Stories about full-bodied angels are interpreted as phantasms fashioned so as to relate to men. Like God, they are perfect spirits that exist outside of time and space. However, God can give them liberty to become involved with human affairs. Similarly, God as a perfect spirit can reveal himself to us by entering the human family through the incarnation. The angels and the souls of the dead know duration but are outside of time. It has been conjectured that with glorified bodies, the clock might start ticking again as matter and time are partners to each other. But, having said this we really do not know much about the spiritualized matter or immortality of glorified men and women (where souls and bodies are reconnected). The risen Christ appears in locked rooms and to men on the road— then just as suddenly he disappears and shows up somewhere else. What would the space or dimensions of heaven matter if we could all travel at the speed of thought?

Much of this reflection is speculation. What do we know for sure? We have the promise of Christ.

“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be” (John 14:2-3).

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The Watchful Guardian Angels

Posted on March 27, 2024 by Father Joe

Many adults regard prayers to a guardian angel to be the stuff of children only, along with the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. As soon as they grow up, even fervent believers frequently cease beseeching the intercession of their spiritual guardians. Guardian Angels are NOT imaginary friends. We have it in good authority that they are real and are watching. Jesus tells us, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father” (Matthew 18:10). The statement is reassuring and staggering. We are not alone. Not only does God see everything but we have an angel watching us as well. Of course, the angels must be all eyes because the good angels never lose sight of the beatific vision.

Do we detect something of a warning in Christ’s statement? The little ones are often associated with innocent children but in truth they would include all those who are marginalized and brushed aside by the world. While we can take comfort in having spiritual guardians, they will always testify to the truth about what they see. Our guardians may be one-and-the-same as the harvesting angels. Those who have had near-death experiences sometimes report encounters with angels and a looming light. Also experienced but understandably under-reported are when angels seek to draw souls into the fire of perdition. Angels can pray for us and maybe intervene in special situations, but they cannot save us from God’s judgment.

Cynics will point to the famous picture of an angel looming over small children who are on the edge of a dangerous bridge. They ask, if such were real, then why do children fall off bridges or get sick or face abuse? Where is this proposed intervention? We must answer that the Guardian Angels do catch and rescue the innocent children— however, it is often the case that we fail to see the saving act. Bodies might be lost but souls are saved. I suspect that every pregnant woman is being followed by at least two angels, her own and the one appointed to the child in her womb. These angels are not ghosts and they are certainly not demonic. Indeed, I suspect that many blessed homes could avoid demonic disturbances if only we acknowledged the powerful spiritual presence of God’s angels. It is sad that people increasingly get involved with the occult and pursue conversations with ghosts and demons, but never offer a prayer to their personal angel. There is also evidence that gatherings of people as in churches or within nations are granted angelic protection, as with Fatima’s Angel of Portugal.

Angels do not belong to themselves. They are messengers for God but more— they are unique and personal instruments through which God acts. Just as Jesus appoints men as his priests to extend his saving work of mercy; so too are angels the vehicles for God’s intervention and power. The angels of God are always about the Lord’s business. They reflect God’s love for us. They are saints and want us to join their number.

A ghost or human soul outside the body is helpless but not angels. The presence of an angel in one’s home is not a haunting but a blessing. We read in the universal catechism: “From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession. ‘Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.’ Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God.”

The Bible attests to these spiritual guardians. Matthew 18:10 was already quoted. We can also look to Psalm 34:7, Psalm 91:11, and Hebrews 1:14.

Psalm 34:8 – “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he saves them.”

Psalm 91:11 – “For he commands his angels with regard to you, to guard you wherever you go.”

Hebrews 1:14 – “Are they not all ministering spirits sent to serve, for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”

The Church has enshrined her belief in Guardian Angels within her liturgical year with their annual commemoration on October 2.

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The Ranks of Angels

Posted on March 25, 2024 by Father Joe

The fact that there are ranks of angels is a truth that I would concede. However, I must honestly admit that all efforts to denote them strike me as contrived and speculative. Focusing on the Scriptures, the Jews tend to speak of ten ranks while Catholics detail nine broken down into sets of three. The source for Christians is Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite from the fifth or sixth century and his work entitled, On the Celestial Hierarchy. It is all remarkably interesting but is it credible?

Highest Rank – Seraphim (Is. 6:2), Cherubim (Ez. 10:15,20), Thrones (Col. 1:16)
Middle Rank – Dominions, Virtues, Powers (all mentioned in Eph. 1:21)
Lowest Rank – Principalities (Eph. 1:21), Archangels (Jude 1:9), Angels (throughout Bible)

How are they distinguished? The highest or first rank of angels focus immediately upon the godhead. They bask in the presence of God. They praise him as holy Wisdom. They clearly acknowledge God as the Judge of all. Those of the middle or second rank possess governing authority over the universe and have power over natural creation. The lowest or third rank is where we find the guardians or messengers of God. These are the angels we most invoke for intercessory prayer.

What are my thoughts about this? The substantial form in human beings is the immortal soul. It is what separates us from animals. If the soul leaves the body, it survives as a ghost. The body, however, would become a corpse. It cannot live without the soul. The soul is the principle of life. By contrast, an angel is pure form without matter. That is why angels cannot die. An angel is a spiritual creature that can know, will and act. The primary activity of an angel is to see, know, and love God as the greatest good. Beginning with its creation, every angel is its own form or species. There is no matter to be determined (formed) as in the race of men. While matter is our principle for individuation, such is not the case for angelic beings. Given the lack of informed matter, there can be no membership in any angelic species. Every angel has its own unique form. While they share a common spiritual essence, each angel is a species of one. I have heard it argued that there is a radical self-determination by the angel’s act of will at creation. The angels of God would sort themselves by their species and office. While all adore, some are drawn to proclamation or governance or revelation or blessing or whatever. This is apart from the orientation that separates the good from the bad angels.

The rebellion among the angelic hosts constitutes the most important distinction between the good and the bad angels. There must have been some kind of veil at the beginning so that there might be freedom regarding the acceptance (or rejection) of God as the greatest good. Otherwise, the compelling attraction of the greatest good would strip away any choice.

Great and small, not all angels are the same. Cherubim are imaged as with four wings and many eyes or faces. They are understood as all seeing. Isaiah 6:1-3 describes those of the highest rank— the Seraphim. They are as sentinels before the throne of God. “Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they hovered. One cried out to the other: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!’” Imaged with six wings, the Seraphim are associated with fiery purification. St. John of the Cross writes that the seraphim covering its face with its wings symbolize “the darkness of the intellect in God’s presence.” He continues that the covering of the feet symbolizes “the blinding and quenching of the affections of the will because of God.” It thus constitutes humility of the creature before the Creator. “With the two remaining wings they flew, indicating both the flight of hope toward things that are not possessed and the elevation above all earthly or heavenly possessions that are not God” (The Ascent of Mount Carmel, II, 6.5).

As a closing aside, various authorities regard Lucifer or Satan as either a Seraphim or Cherubim (Ezekiel 28:11–17). Such a lofty standing among the angelic hierarchy, would denote two things: (1) he would possess tremendous angelic powers (even without grace) and (2) his was a most terrible fall and loss. Satan brings upon himself an alienation from God that portends to a frustration of his very purpose. What are we to make of a corrupted creature called to resound the thrice Holy name of God? Instead of a hymn or prayer, is he a living curse? Akin to Dante’s frozen Satan, is he eternally silent— locked in a moment of hesitation— unable to adore the one who is Holy, Holy, Holy?

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