Everybody Has an Angel E-Book

Anselm Gruen

• Herausgeber: WS
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 175

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2000

Beschreibung

In this follow-up to Angels of Grace, Anselm Gruen shows how the gentleness and compassion of God is embodied in tthe kindness of angels throughout the Bible. Everybody Has an Angel presents the angels of the Bible as spiritual helpers, accessible to believers today. There is the Angel who Accompanies, the Angel Who Heals, the Angel who Shares My Joy, and many more. Gruen makes clear that as humans we are held safe in a special way, and most of all, we do not have the responsibility for everything that happens to us.

Leseprobe

First published in English in the U.S.A. in 2000 by

The Crossroad Publishing Company

www.crossroadpublishing.com

Original edition: Jeder Mensch hat einen Engel

Published by Herder Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1999

Copyright © 1999 by Herder Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau

English translation copyright © 2000 by The Crossroad Publishing Company

Cover design: Stefan Killen Design

Cover art: Fra Angelico. Dance of the angels. Museo di San Marco/ Art Resource

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of The Crossroad Publishing Company.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gruen, Anselm.

[Jeder Mensch hat einen Engel. English]

Everybody has an angel / Anselm Gruen; translated by Sharon Therese Nemeth.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-8245-1861-5 (alk. paper)

EPUB ISBN: 978-0-8245-0255-3

MOBI ISBN: 978-0-8245-0267-6

1. Angels – Biblical teaching. I. Title.

BS680.A48 G7813 2000

235’.3 – dc21

00-009448

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10         06 05 04 03 02 01 00

Contents

Title page

Copyright

Introduction

1. The Guardian Angel

2. The Angel Who Hears the Cry of a Child

3. The Angel Who Opens Heaven

4. The Angel Who Prevents Sacrifice

5. The Angel Who Blesses

6. The Angel Who Blocks the Way

7. The Angel Who Sends Out a Call

8. The Angel Who Gives Instruction

9. The Angel Who Heals (Raphael)

10. The Angel Who Stills the Fire

11. The Angel Who Frees from the Lions’ Den

12. The Angel Who Awakens Us with Its Touch

13. The Angel Who Accompanies Us Everywhere

14. The Angel Who Fights Our Battles (Michael)

15. The Angel Who Heralds a Child (Gabriel)

16. The Angel Who Brings Joyous News

17. The Angel Who Appears in a Dream

18. The Angel Who Serves Life

19. The Angel Who Rejoices with Me

20. The Angel Who Takes Away Fear

21. The Angel Who Breaks the Chains

22. The Angel Who Enables Resurrection

23. The Angel Who Interprets Our Life

24. The Angel Who Carries Us to Heaven (Lazarus)

Conclusion

Works Cited

About the Author

Introduction

Belief in a personal guardian angel is widespread in many religions. The early church shared a belief with Jewish tradition that God gave each person an angel, who accompanied him or her on the passage from birth to death and beyond into paradise. Up until several years ago this belief was made light of by academic theologians as a childlike idea that had nothing to do with the truths of Christianity. According to a poll by Focus magazine, a surprisingly high number of people believe in a personal guardian angel. Belief in angels is apparently more credible for most people today than belief in God and in Jesus Christ.

In the New Age movement it has become popular to speak about visible angels, who stay by each of us teaching us important lessons helpful for mastering life. The physical appearance of angels exercises a wide fascination. In my view, however, the New Age movement places the emphasis all too often on the out-of-the-ordinary. Nevertheless, through its angel books, angel conventions, and angel seminars, people’s curiosity awakes in a secular world to something that goes beyond the banality of everyday life. Through angels, mystery enters lives that are often lived out superficially.

When I write that everybody has an angel, I am taking the biblical tradition as my basis. I look at biblical stories of angels who come to the aid of people and show them the right direction to go. I have chosen twenty-four stories that describe in beautiful images how an angel intervenes in a hopeless situation, watches over and protects, and opens a person’s eyes to the path that leads to life. In these angel stories it becomes apparent that the angels never abandon those they are leading in any situation, but are constant companions along the way, offering protection and comfort just when the feeling of being isolated with fear is the greatest.

I also write about the angel each of us has from a therapeutic interest. In many conversations people have told me that the idea of a personal guardian angel at their side has helped them to take control of their lives. The image of the guardian angel was especially helpful to them as children. The angel who accompanied them was just as real as the doll they played with or the teddy bear they took to bed with them. People often tell me their life story concentrating solely on the hurt that they have experienced. It is undoubtedly important that we look at the injuries that caused us pain as children or later on in our lives. However, I meet many people who focus only on their hurt. New methods are continually promoted on how to confront these early childhood injuries. Constantly trying to discover new wounds seems to be almost an addiction. Here the idea is helpful that not only were these people at the mercy of those who hurt them but rather that an angel was also standing by their side protecting them, and leading them to a place where they could breathe a sigh of relief and experience healing. Instead of repeatedly opening the “wounds of unlovedness” (Peter Schellenbaum), it would often be better for us to look for the tracks the angels have left in our lives. “Angel tracks” are what I call the beneficial and healing traces that can be found in every person’s life. I discover them when I ask myself where I felt happy as a child, where I was able to lose myself, and where I was completely absorbed in my games. Where were my favorite places? What did I do there? What did I most like to play? Where was I completely in my element? When I follow these tracks I come to realize that I was not always at the mercy of sick and hurtful parents but rather that an angel accompanied me as a child. The angel made it possible for me to go on, despite injuries and hardships, and to stay healthy and find my own path in life.

The idea that every child has an angel can relieve the strain on parents. Many worry excessively about whether they are raising their children properly, whether negative influences from outside are leading them astray, or whether the hurt that they can unconsciously cause their children might damage them forever. While such worries and fears are certainly founded, I meet parents who, through psychological books, have become completely unsure of their own abilities. They want to do everything perfectly and take pains to follow exactly the advice that is given. However, they stop trusting their own feelings anymore. This causes contact with their children to become even more complicated. It can even happen that by avoiding any possibility of hurting their children, they end up wounding them more than parents who follow their natural instincts. The idea that every child has an angel can free parents from their excessive worry. In spite of the limitations of parents and their shortcomings in child rearing, children can grow up healthy because angels are watching over and leading them.

This book, however, is aimed not only at parents, but also at those who are looking at their own childhood, perhaps dealing with it in therapy or spiritual counseling, to confront repression or injuries that prevent them from really living. Sometimes these people are desperate. They have already thought often about their childhood and spoken to others about it. Perhaps they have even tried to work out everything that was burdening them. But they can go only so far with knowledge alone. The recognition of where and when they were hurt does not heal their wounds. On the contrary, many seek continually to find out more about the pain that they experienced in life, rubbing salt in their wounds and tearing off the scabs again. It is also important for these people to follow the tracks the angels have left in their lives. They were not only at the mercy of an alcoholic father or a depressed mother during their childhood. Their lives were not only influenced by negative messages such as, “You’ll never succeed in life. You’re a burden to me. It would be better if you’d never been born.” An angel was also at their side, making it possible for them to experience another environment where they could feel at home, free from the negative influences around them, and where they could sense healing and wholeness. Getting in touch with these angel tracks can be just as healing as a critical examination of our wounds. When we identify the tracks the angels have left in our lives, we will also be able to discover the angel who is at our side now and who wants to lead us to life just as it did in the past.

Based on the angel appearances and encounters in the Bible, I would like to look at how angels place their protective hands on children, and on every person, and what effect angels have on us. In doing this it is not my aim to present an exegetical interpretation of these biblical passages, but rather to present a descriptive interpretation of our personal experience. Angels can be fittingly described only in images. The Bible shows us how this is done. If we allow ourselves to enter into the images of the Bible, we will discover more about the angels who help us than we will through theological speculation. However, I would also like to touch briefly on the theological and psychological positions regarding a fitting way to speak about angels, in part to separate myself from some of the exaggerated viewpoints about angels that are propagated today.

A Fitting Way to Speak about Angels

Much is said about angels in New Age circles today. It is apparent that people yearn to see and experience the supernatural world. In the New Age world the idea of angels has been influenced by pagan gods and goddesses and shaped by the experiences of mediums and clairvoyants. Angels are placed in the astral world and possess a nonmaterial nature. In the early church such concrete ideas about angels already held a fascination for people. So the author of the letter to the Colossians warned the first Christians: “Let no one disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind” (Col. 2:18). Apparently the heretics, whom the letter to the Colossians warns of, practiced an angel cult and felt superior to the Christians who just followed Jesus Christ. This feeling of superiority is echoed in many New Age works, which express the wish to have more knowledge than people are capable of possessing. Because of this, it is necessary to speak about angels as is fitting in the Christian tradition.

Theological Approaches

Angels have been much neglected in the theology of the past thirty years. Theology tells us that although the Bible presumes the existence of angels, it does not invent it. Angels simply belonged to the worldview of that time, which the Bible also uses to speak about God and God’s effect on people. But angels actually had no further significance. Christian theology managed just as well without speaking about angels. In contrast to this critical position, the history of theology and Christian dogma shows that church tradition views angels as creatures of God. This means that they are created by God in the same way that humans are and stand in the service of God. And if angels are creatures, “then they have to be recognizable with normal human cognitive power” (Vorgrimler 31). They are spiritually personal powers and forces. Therefore, according to the teachings of the church an angel is more than merely an image for the healing and loving closeness of God. Angels are forces that possess an inner strength. And they have a mission for humans. As spiritual-personal creatures they are necessarily related to the human spirit and personality and have a direct influence on these areas. This means that they should be seen primarily in their connection to people and less as isolated creatures.

According to St. Augustine the word “angel” designates a mission rather than a being. An angel is God’s emissary, through which God sends a message to people, accompanies them, or inspires them. The angel can come to us in a person, in a dream, or in our soul. The place in which an angel can be experienced is the human heart. The conviction of the Bible, shared by the church fathers, is that a person can see and experience an angel again and again. These encounters are described vividly. A deeper penetration into the being and workings of angels and the human curiosity to possess an intimate knowledge of them are rightfully rejected by the church.

If we take the teachings of the church seriously, then we can rightfully speak about angels through whom God shows us his closeness and affects us personally. God uses the created energy of angels to express himself. This could be psychic energy—the helping powers in our soul. It could be the prayers of other people, and it could also be the loving intercession of those whom we have loved who are now deceased. Vorgrimler rightfully asks: “Should such psychic energies be considered meaningless? It cannot be wrong to trust in God’s protection as conveyed through such protective forces” (Vorgrimler 105). If angels are created spiritual beings, then they can come to us through their own spiritual power, in other people, and in dreams, to interpret life and affect us in a healing and helping way. In this way angels make God’s closeness to us tangible. God’s loving closeness surrounds me as created reality through the angel, thus becoming for me a concrete experience. I don’t just have to believe in God’s closeness; it can also be experienced, for example, as a thought that suddenly flashes through my mind. In accordance with Christian tradition it is legitimate to say that an angel inspired me with this thought.

The Bible often speaks about angels in connection with dreams. In a dream an angel speaks to me and God’s message becomes concrete. A woman told me that she could never believe that God loved her. When she read or heard in a sermon that she was God’s beloved daughter, it had no meaning for her, as if it did not apply to her. But then she dreamed that a voice spoke to her saying, “You are my beloved daughter, in whom I am well pleased.” In a dream the word of God became an inner reality. She no longer had only to believe that it was true, because she experienced the word of God as reality. An angel conveyed this message to her, indeed, in such a way that she could experience it personally.

If angels are created reality, they can also come to us as a spiritual force that surrounds us, or they can take the form of a person. A person can become an angel for us. Other people are not essentially angels, but at one time or another can become one for me. Through another person I experience God’s helping and loving closeness. A created reality is also the inner light that sometimes flashes through our mind or an image that surfaces inside us. And a created reality is the idea of the angel who surrounds me—the image of a shining spiritual being. We often cannot differentiate whether these images are dreams or visions, or if an angel can indeed be seen with human eyes. This is, however, not a crucial factor. Whether dreams, visions, or visible spiritual beings, these are always encounters where something happens that is perceived by people as an angel—a messenger of God. We are able to experience God’s healing and protective closeness directly through an angel.

We do not need to believe in angels. Angels are not a subject of faith. We can just believe in God. But through angels belief in God’s love can become concrete and multiply. Angels can be experienced. They connect our world with the world of God. Through angels God enters into our everyday reality. And because of this it is good for us to speak about them. God always remains the utterly Other, inconceivable and unnameable; God is the absolute mystery that we can never fully comprehend. In the angels God shows us his closeness in a human way. Because of this we can speak about angels. But we should always do this in connection with God and not—in the New Age manner—purely out of interest in the unusual. Angels are messengers of God. They show us the way to God. They open our eyes to the mystery of God. They create the connection between heaven and earth, between God and human beings. They climb down Jacob’s ladder from heaven to fix God’s message in our hearts.

Psychological Approaches

The Protestant pastoral psychologist Ellen Stubbe addresses the thoughts of English child psychologist Donald W. Winnicott in order to find a fitting way to speak about angels today. Winnicott speaks about “transcendental objects” and “transcendental phenomena.” He differentiates between an outer and inner world in children. The outer world is determined by the parents, as well as by what the child comes into contact with and finds interesting. The inner world is the child’s own imagination. Winnicott also talks about the existence of a “third dimension.” This is a “middle area of experience, which is influenced by the inner reality as well as the outside world. It is an area that cannot be held in question” (Stubbe 61), an oasis where the child can rest, and where the child is helped to connect the inner and outer realities. A stuffed toy, a doll, or some other thing serves as a transitional object, helping the child to overcome a fear of the dark or other unfamiliar feelings. This transitional object enables the child to sense protection and security even when the mother, for whom the object often serves as a substitute, is not there. Bringing the inner and outer worlds into harmony is a continual human process, according to Winnicott. From childhood on we are helped in doing this through direct contact with the middle area of experience: for children this is in games, where they can live out their fantasies and imagination. For adults the middle area is transferred to art and religion.

This is the area where Stubbe, in fitting language, places angels. The idea of the angel helps both children and adults to keep their identity intact. Children as well as adults are threatened with losing their individual identity. When children pray to their angel, they subconsciously sense that it holds their fragile identity together, because they feel whole and precious. Angels, says Stubbe, enter situations that are threatened by inner and outer disintegration, and their effect is directed toward “integration and wholeness” (Stubbe 276). The psychological function of the angel is “first as a support for self-development, and second to safeguard the existing self” (263).

But angels not only form the self; they also bring us into contact with God. This is because a child is more likely to speak about angels than about God. It can also be easier for adults to speak about angels than God, who often seems so far away and abstract as not to be experienced directly. In the same way as the inner and outer realities, angels also belong to the middle area that connects heaven with earth and tangible everyday life with God. Through the idea of angels who stay by our side, God’s healing and loving closeness becomes concrete for us. From the beginning, angels have opened a horizon of experience. I do not have to believe in angels; they are experienced and in their ambiguity remain in a place between imagination and reality. We call people who help us angels. We also sense that deep inside of us an angel prevails, who opens our eyes to true reality, who keeps our threatened self-identity intact, and who accompanies us over the threshold of death and into the light of eternity.

The psychology of C. J. Jung offers us further insight into a fitting way to speak about angels. For children, angels often serve as an image that substitutes for absent parents. The idea of the angel helps children to feel secure in spite of their situation. Jung believes that children not only experience their tangible mother and father, but also carry archetypal images of a mother and father within them. These archetypal ideals are necessary for a child to experience feelings such as security and protection despite a negative parental background. Through these images, which often take the form of an angel in children, a child has a sense of the loving and concerned mother. Jung does not write about the existence of angels, but only about their reality in the psyche: “If angels are indeed something,