Does a fellow named Blake W. Healy see angels?
Well, we’ll offer this for your determination.
A personal thing, angels are or can be. Very personal.
In fact, says Healy, an evangelical-style Christian from Atlanta, he has seen angelic entities since early childhood and has even categorized them. [See previous story]
Call it what he does: a snapshot of the various roles “God’s celestial servants” play.
If nothing else, his highly intriguing book, The Veil, spurs one to invoke angels more often — to be more specific with them and to ask an angel to take care of every one of life’s situations. It seems to work. Do we not all need them (often, and often urgently)?
But back to his categories.
There are “protection angels,” says Healy. These he sees guarding church services, for instance — and guard they must, for in his experience as a lifelong churchgoer, dark spirits often try to enter. And often do — without our knowing, intermingling with us (and especially our patterns of thought).
The first one he ever saw in detail, as far as the protective sort, writes Blake, had what he describes as a Greco-Roman countenance, swathed in radiant silver armor with a finely engraved handle on his sword .
Writes Healy: “As I noticed the details, I understood each one. I knew the etchings on his sword and armor were a badge of long and devoted service.
“I knew the words written on the horn at his side were a declaration that could break down any wall [see: Jericho].
“And I knew each line in the angel’s strong and aged face was a mark of his earnest commitment to his perpetual vigil.” Not so much protector angels as they are symbols — let’s say, manifestations — of God’s “all-encompassing protection,” in his words.
Everything starts and ends with God. With hymns. With Jesus.
There are worship angels. These dispense grace and inspiration — and often, joy and loud song. They ride on the words of the church body. Their smiles are those of “matriarchal satisfaction.” We Catholics can feel them when we are reciting the Rosary (matriarchal) and adoring Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
One Blake saw wore a plain robe with hair drawn back into a simple ponytail, worshiping right along with congregants. This is Pentecostal-type worship: The angel sat on her knees, face pressed to the carpet, arms extended outward, palms flat. Such is their imparting: a spirit of worship — direct contact with God.
We take this all with an open mind but as always under advisement. A critical point: how faith wards off evil spirits — how faith is the key to spiritual warfare — and how everything should be oriented toward a direct contact with God. As a writer notes just today (feast day of Saint Anthony the Abbott), “In whatever temptations we may encounter, Anthony teaches us that faith, prayer, fasting, and the Sign of the Cross is enough to defeat the snares of the Evil One. The devil may appear powerful, but the saints again and again prove that he is not and is no match for those who put their trust in God.”)
There are “personal angels.” That’s what Blake calls “guardians.” He doesn’t like the latter term because they do much more than guard (though this they accomplish quite ably).
“Personal angels do, in fact, guard you during your daily comings and goings,” he says. “To consider them a kind of one-man personal secret service is a tragic oversimplification. A personal angel is more like a resourceful assistant than a muscle-bound bouncer. I’ve never met anyone with more than one, and I’ve never met anyone without one.”
It’s sobering and at the same time reassuring to contemplate how “personal angels” know us better than our parents could: have been with us since birth — perhaps even accompanied our souls as it was knitted in the womb by the Lord. He goes on to describe some he has seen specifically and how they appear and what they do: how they function.
While nobody he has seen has more than one — says this man who says he sees them constantly — that doesn’t mean we don’t have other types in addition — for special times, chores, crises, and missions.
In fact, here we get to a final categorization: what he labels “activation angels.” These heavenly entities possess specific areas of expertise and might be sent (and invoked, if they have not been sent) to help us with relationships, money, emotional issues, with careers and journeys, with spirituality.
“‘Activation angel’ is a very broad term,” admits the Atlanta man. “There are easily hundreds of different kinds, and I see them more frequently than any other type of angel. This category covers angels that carry healing, restoration of relationships, financial blessings, government transformation, social change, business ideas, inventions, peace breakthroughs, and dozens upon dozens of other things that we cry out to God for.” They bring peace and they bring a piece of Heaven to earth. Blake may see a healing angel, for example, carrying a bowl full of precious unction or a churning wave of illuminated colors that “splash and splatter” every corner of a room, filling it with grace.
Again as always: for discernment.
He’s a preacher now, is Blake — and unlike a lot of evangelicals, harbors no unkind words for Catholics (in fact teaches that a “religious” person who criticizes other religions is not truly religious). It’s something to mull over. We won’t spoil the book. There’s much more. Is it worth it? It is fascinating and at turns inspiring. Does one accept it lock, stock, and barrel? No. But it is written very responsibly and credibly.
We’ll leave it at that.
There are finally “deep Heaven angels” — as profound as it sounds.
He saw one angel carrying a robe of wisdom to bestow upon a person, a robe that was made of the “night sky.”
A lot of imagery like that in this recollection; a number of things we have not seen detailed elsewhere.
[resources: The Veil]
