Wednesday 29 September 2021

Psalm 103

Background

I have written before in ‘A Word in Time’ about meeting an angel by a tube station in north London. Someone who cheered me with kind words and a toffee. Judith my wife has also met an angel as well. I was poorly and we were moving house. She went to the van hire people to book a van to move our greenhouse. None were available but we had to get on with it straight away. The man in front, who had succeeded in hiring the last van, offered to help. He came to our house, loaded the van with the many boxes of a disassembled greenhouse, drove to our new home, and unloaded. He would take no money. Of course, he was an angel too; he was part of God’s great work of love and kindness that keeps breaking out. As Gerard Manley Hopkins writes in his poem God's Grandeur "The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil."

We have met others in sadness and need as well as joy and celebration. God’s messengers, for such they are, come in all shapes and sizes. They speak eternal words of hope into darkness and declare "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace" (Luke 2:14). They may use language, a smile, a toffee, or even a van, but the message is the same. God is still there though clouds hide the glorious presence. God still cares, though sadness looms. God will win, and as Julian of Norwich said "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well", even when the battle seems fierce and victory in doubt.

 Today is the feast of St Michael and All Angels, the feast the celebrates a God who has simply not given up, not been defeated, and who will continually chase after us with comfort and hope until we laugh at our doubts and know face to face what we now know only in part. I see him pictured on Coventry cathedral, standing over the wretched dragon, and I rejoice that God has powerful allies throughout the world.

To Ponder:

• When did you meet one of God’s angels?
• When have you been one?

Prayer(From Catholic Gallery)

Saint Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.