The Guardian Angels, Our Heavenly Companions, a little booklet that reveals the secrets of angels and how they guide and govern the world. It explains the many services these blessed spirits perform for us, mostly without our realizing it -- protecting souls and bodies in a way that can be both ordinary and miraculous. Fascinating examples from the lives of our holiest saints: how they defend us, how they form at Mass, how they defeat demons! CLICK HERE

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MAILBAG: CLOUDLIKE 'ANGEL' OVER COLORADO VIGIL REMINDS US OF GOD'S SIGNS AND CONSOLATIONS

When are there angels and when are there not?

Moreover, how much can we trust accounts that link these ethereal agents with prophecies (after all, the word "angel" means "messenger")?

There are photos: When angels seem to appear in them, can we trust those that are very clear and defined -- or are miraculous forms more likely to be subtler and more nebulous (as at right, which some see as an angel with flaming sword, in a photo of the sun over mountains, or, as at left, in the northern lights)?

After the horrible shooting in Colorado, cyberspace was abuzz with what looked [below, left] like a towering angelic form in a cloud above the theater in Aurora during a vigil.

It did seem like a sign.

But by their nature clouds are changing and indeed nebulous. Like so much of life: open to interpretation.

It is why we use the word "alleged," which implies open cautiousness.

We have not had time to investigate the one at the right, which we posted while in transit, and could also be taken to be the Lord; the form reportedly is more "pixelated" -- accenting the form -- than the rest of the photo and this naturally raises the possibility that it was doctored or "photo-shopped" as does a report that it was attributed to another place as well, although for all we know it might be natural for a miraculous formation to be differentiated in such a manner and the fact that it is accented doesn't necessarily negate existence of the form itself. It was reported last Tuesday on the Facebook page of Karen Minton, a weather reporter for WSBTV in Atlanta (and may also have been displayed, a day previously, by another television station in the vicinity of New Haven, Connecticut). Where was it, what is it, who took it?

We sent a note inquiring about its authenticity to Karen, who told us, "I have done some research and found the picture was posted on the internet several days before that. Also, the cloud cover in Atlanta that day was a low overcast and could not have produced that type of cloud. I took it off of my page since I could not verify it as being real." (It was also alleged over Colorado). She too is concerned it was doctored. Still, there have been similarly sharply defined photographs that proved to be authentic (though in some cases wrongly attributed or, perhaps likewise, digitally enhanced).

In  Kerrville, Texas (west of Austin), is a Cross and prayer garden at which many say they experience manifestations of the supernatural (including a man named Ron Hicks). According (again) to a local TV station, "an image of a blurry figure many believe is an angel appearing at the foot of the Cross [right]. Hicks said there was no one near the Cross on the April evening when he took the photo." Such glitter also has been reported at Betania in Venezuela as well as a site near Boston that is connected with the Venezuelan apparitions. Also, orbs of light were photographed around the Texas Cross -- as also around a large bronze Corpus of Jesus in Bosnia-Hercegovina (below, left).  [Photo below, right was taken on the Feast of the Transfiguration after the 8:30 a.m. Mass, August 6, 2012, on the Hudson, outside St. Augustine's, Ossining, N.Y., see here]

We had an article recently recounting the many who claim to have picked up mysterious hitch-hikers or otherwise run into strangers who seemed unusual, mentioned that Jesus is coming soon, and then seemed to vanish.

A number of such accounts have been collected by an Evangelical blogger named Jim Bramlett (you can read them in their entirety here).

One in particular stretches our discernment.

Says Bramlet:

"This is a totally different kind of angel incident, but with a similar message and no less powerful. In May, 1995 I received this most electrifying report from a friend who has been a missionary to China for several years. To protect him and his contacts in China, I must not reveal his name. But for you to better understand his credibility, let me explain that I have known him for many years. He is a graduate of a prestigious theological seminary and is a former pastor. My friend is an intelligent and balanced servant of God. He is not given to sensationalism. The following is a summary of his recent report to me.

"'The whole province of Shandong, in eastern China (population: 57 million), is in the midst of a sweeping revival. For fear of arrest, believers meet secretly in house churches, often by candlelight. At a 1995 meeting in Shandong, everyone was singing "in the Spirit" together (1 Corinthians 14:15), not in their own language, but "as the Spirit gave them utterance," all in harmony but all singing different words. Someone audio-taped the meeting. Later, when they played back the cassette, they were shocked! What they heard was not what had happened there at all -- but the sound of angels singing in Mandarin -- a song they had never heard before, and with a musical accompaniment that had not been there! When my friend first heard the tape, before anyone told him what it was, he exclaimed, "Those are angels!" Actually, there was no other explanation. A Chinese Christian co-worker translated the tape. Below are the actual words sung by the angels! Note that the words express ideas with which these rural Chinese peasants were not familiar. (Original Chinese version follows):

"The End is Near: Rescue Souls.

The famine is becoming more and more critical. 
There are more and more earthquakes. 
The situation is becoming more and more sinister. 
People are fighting against each other, nation against nation. 
Disasters are more and more severe.

The whole environment is deteriorating. 
Disasters are more and more severe. 
People's hearts are wicked, and they do not worship the true God. 
Disasters are more and more severe.

Floods and droughts are more and more frequent. 
There is more and more homosexuality and incurable diseases. 
Disasters are more and more severe.

The climates are becoming more and more abnormal. 
The earth is more and more restless. 
The skies have been broken. The atmosphere is distorted. 
Disasters are more and more severe.

Chorus:

The end is near. The revelation of love has been manifested. 
Rise up, rise up, rescue souls. 
The end is near. 
Rise up, rise up, rescue souls."

[As for the mailbag, in response to an article on mysterious strangers, often hitch-hikers, a viewer named Terri Bradley said: "This isn't a story about 'hitchhikers' per se, but is about 'vanishing people.' Many years ago, I was on my way out of Chicago coming from a seminar for the company I worked for. Somehow, I got terribly turned around, and not knowing the city, stopped in several small convenience stores to ask directions back to the highway. But no luck. No one could tell me how to get to the highway. I finally stopped in a gas station to ask. When the clerk behind the counter told me he wasn't sure, suddenly there were two small Oriental people, dressed in all white standing next to me and telling me to follow them, they would lead me back to the highway, they happened to be going that way. They told me to follow their little white car when they were finished filling up. They led me directly onto the highway, and then their car fell back next to me in the other lane. I waved a 'thank you' and when I looked again a few seconds later (and I mean a few seconds) the car was gone. I kept looking in my rearview mirror and in both lanes next to me; there were very few cars on that highway at that time. It was the middle of the day and the traffic back then was very very thin, especially in the middle of the day. They were NOWHERE to be seen! They were absolutely NOWHERE! I was flabbergasted. I truly believe they were angels. The Lord knows that I have a great tendency to be 'directionally challenged,' so I am sure He realized He had to send in the troops, or I would just keep driving around in circles. No one can tell me when I look back that those were not angels sent to help me out."

[Back to, perhaps, prophecy. Signs in the sky? Optical illusions? Wrote Cindy Martin in Yucca Valley, California a month back: "I experienced something very unusual last night and wanted to tell you of this. I consider myself a very spiritual person, receive the sacraments frequently, and pray unceasingly. I feel very unsettled lately, a sense of peace will come over me when I pray a Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet. Last night, July 3, there was a full moon. My husband and I were in our hot tub. I had prayed a Divine Mercy chaplet as it was getting dark and I was looking up at the moon. It was a little cloudy here in California, but it was beginning to clear. I was looking up at the moon and it began to shake and bounce around up and down and side to side. I thought it was the Jacuzzi jet making my head shake, so I stood up. The moon was still shaking. I sat out and it still shook, I got out and stood on the ground and it was still bouncing or dancing. This went on for about ten minutes. Then it was as still as a doorknob. I was frightened but at peace as well. I looked up on the internet and can't find an explanation as to why this would happen. Could it be a moon quake, the ozone, the heavens shaking, or a kiss from Heaven after praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet, God letting me know He was pleased and comforted through the prayer? I'll never know; just wondering."] 

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