Do the Angels and saints know our thoughts?
Jurandir Otoniel Torres – Ipameri (Brazil)
To this excellent question, we could add other related ones. When we pray in the interior of our soul, without uttering any words, do the Angels and saints really have any knowledge of our prayers? Does our Guardian Angel know what we are thinking at all times?
The answer is simple, and is given by St. Thomas Aquinas (cf. Summa Theologiæ. I, q.57, a.4): by nature, only God has direct access to the interior of our soul and, therefore, only He knows our thoughts; but by our outward reactions, the Angels, the saints and even the demons can intuit what we are thinking and act accordingly.
However, supported by the authority of St. Gregory the Great, the Angelic Doctor affirms (cf. Summa Theologiæ. I, q.89, a.8) that the saints and the good Angels know in God everything that happens on earth, in particular what happens to men, and they intervene in events whenever there is a special plan from the Most High to do so.
In short: the Angels and saints do know our thoughts by a special gift from God, and not by nature; demons can only have access to our inner selves indirectly, by analysing our outward movements.
Let us therefore pray with confidence to the Holy Angels and to our brothers and sisters of the Church Triumphant, because they are watching over us with special care. Above all, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Angels and Saints, our Mother, knows and assists us.
Why do the Heralds build such colourful churches, full of details, paintings, etc., in these times of a simpler, minimalist style? I like it, but I would like to know why.
Marieta Cristina de Alencar– São Paulo
To answer this profound question properly, we would need to write a lengthy book. We will therefore give a summarized answer.
Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, the inspirer of all our churches, has always been very mindful of the command of Our Lord Jesus Christ: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48); and “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven” (Mt 6:10).
So the question arises: if we must have the Father as our model, what was the “style” used by God in creation? He was absolutely not a minimalist… On the contrary, by creating the universe with magnificent shapes and colours, He left us a pattern of how man’s works should be, imitating those of his Creator.
History shows us how the holy King David and his son Solomon used this pattern to build the Temple in Jerusalem.
Shortly before he left for eternity, David gave Solomon no less than “a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver” (1 Chr 22:14). Each Hebrew talent was equivalent to just over thirty-four kilos. To this Solomon added no small quantity of precious stones.
Supervised by three thousand three hundred foremen, an army of one hundred and eighty thousand labourers worked on this portentous project: thirty thousand on the construction itself, eighty thousand cutting stones on the mountain and seventy thousand transporting them (cf. 1 Kgs 5:27-30).
This fabulous fortune was spent on building a temple worthy of housing the Ark of the Covenant. However, our churches house something infinitely more precious: the Blessed Sacrament.
Of course, there are a thousand nuances to be considered about the balance and beauty of simplicity, because in His works, God – who “in wisdom hast […] made them all” (Ps 104:24) – has also placed sublime brilliance in small beings such as a swan or a hummingbird.
But therein lies the answer: in choosing his “style” of building, our founder took as his model God Himself, who made everything with splendour!
