The help of Our Lady, the Saints,  the angels and the Holy Souls.

Our Lady

Who is more qualified than the mother to help her child? As a child of God, we are not orphans [John 14:18], we have our Heavenly Father in Heaven and we have the assistance of our Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary to help us to become holy .

Our Lady is the most perfect creation of God, She is the Immaculate Conception, which means that She was conceived free from the original sin that we inherit as children of Adam and Eve [Isaiah 66:10].

Jesus said You must be born again, of water and spirit, that is born from above in order to see the Kingdom of God. [John 3:3] A man born from the flesh is flesh, but one born of the Spirit is Spirit.

In baptism we are born in water and spirit, therefore we become children of God the Father and just as in the order of nature there is a mother for every creature, for the children of God there is also a mother: The Blessed Virgin Mary. She was given to us in Calvary "Behold your mother" [John 19:27].

So we become a new creation in the Spirit of God and as His children we must come very close to our Heavenly Mother in order to learn from Her wisdom and to imitate her in following Christ.

Our Lady will help us with the graces of her intercession before the Holy Trinity. She cares for us as a mother does for a child, She follows the command of Christ "Behold your son" [John 19:26].

The Saints

Before we seek the assistance of the saints or the angels, we must realise that Our Lady is the Queen of Heaven, therefore She is the Queen of angels and of saints.

But we grow fond of the saints because they were all unique in their ways of holiness and there is something appealing to us in every saint.

By their fruits you shall know them says the Lord [Matthew 7:16], and we know about the fruits of holiness of the saints since they lived their lives in the pattern of Christ. There are saints for different occasions, for example we may have devotion to St. Joseph because he was the head of the Holy Family and He was a chaste man. He provided for Jesus and Mary, so we can ask him to help us in our temporal needs, in our families and in our desire for chastity.

All saints listen to our prayers because they are already in the Presence of God who is Omnipotent and Omnipresent. Their prayers of intercession before God are very powerful [Revelation 5:8] because they are holy and they ask in accordance with the Will of God.

The angels

Everyone has been given a personal guardian angel for protection and guidance. [Exodus 23:20]

The angels are spiritual creatures of a higher order than humans. God has created them to serve him and to administer his Holy Will, to be his warriors, messengers and to assist human beings. The angels are divided in nine orders : seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels and angels.

The three angels that are named in the Bible are three Archangels: Michael, who represents the Power and the Divine Will of God. Gabriel, who represents the Word and the Wisdom of God, the messenger who brought down the news of the Incarnation to Mary. And the Archangel Raphael, the medicine of God who represents the Love of God. He came to assist Tobit in the old Testament.

The guardian angels are always assisting us, and manifesting the Will of God for us. The bad angels, who are called also demons or devils, are always trying to deceive us and they tempt us to sin [2 Corinthians 12:7] [1 Peter 5:8].

Angels can not force the human will, but they give suggestions to our minds so that we still remain free to do what is good or bad.

In the beginning one third of the angels rebelled against God and they became the bad angels [Revelation 12:4], with Lucifer as their head. The name Satan known in the Hebrew as Abaddon or in Greek as Apollyon means "destroyer". Other names given to Him are prince of darkness, adversary, accuser, deceiver, dragon, liar, leviathan, murderer, serpent, tormentor and god of this world.

In the final battle of the angels as revealed in the Apocalypse, St. Michael the Archangel will defeat Satan forever, [Revelation 12:7-9] who will be thrown in the lake of eternal fire with all his angels.

Our relationship with our guardian angel must be very intimate, because we must pray to that invisible companion to help us to do the Will of God, we can ask him to assist us in our daily work and we should pray that he keeps us in the Presence of God at all times. He will speak to us many times during the day through our conscience.

The Holy Souls in Purgatory

After death comes judgment, if we qualify for the Kingdom of God, we must be purified of all sinfulness and egoism until we become one with God [Matthew 5:26].

Purgatory is a place of purification and hope, the holy souls suffer the pain of loss, which is not being able to possess God. They reach this purification through time and also by the help of those who give alms, do charitable works and offer masses and prayers for them [2 Maccabees 12:44].

The Lord has commanded us to love one another and to help one another. There is no greater Charity than to offer the Precious Blood of Jesus in atonement for the holy souls in Purgatory so that they can obtain relief from their painful purification.

As we help them, they also pray for us and protect us, they eventually become saints who will be spiritually obliged to help us.

November is the month of the holy souls, during this month we should offer masses for them, specially we must be very charitable with the souls of the departed in our families and of the people that we have met.

 

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