Dear Angela, It sounds a bit like you have put your spiritual life on automatic pilot.\u00a0 That\u2019s understandable, considering how many other things you have going on.\u00a0 Understandable, but not acceptable.\u00a0 It\u2019s exactly what the devil wants you to do: fall into routine.\u00a0 You \u201csay your prayers,\u201d \u201cgo to Mass,\u201d stay \u201cinvolved\u201d in your apostolic work, but your heart begins to get detached from it all.\u00a0 You go through all the right motions and say all the right things and make sure everyone thinks you\u2019re a spiritual rock, but on the inside you cut yourself off from Christ, preferring to dialogue with yourself about all the new developments in your social and intellectual life instead of involving the Lord in them.\u00a0 Maybe I\u2019m wrong.\u00a0 Maybe you haven\u2019t gone quite that far down the road to lukewarm-ism.\u00a0 But it sounds like you may have at least taken a few steps in that direction. Today\u2019s feast day can be a great wake up call.\u00a0 The whole Church celebrates the glorious archangels, those spiritual powerhouses who lead the hosts of angels that serve God in his heavenly castle. The theology behind angels is fascinating and quite instructive, but I don\u2019t want to go into it here (if you\u2019re interested, a good place to start is the Catechism #s 328-336, 392-395).\u00a0 I would just like to remind you that we don\u2019t celebrate them just because they are beautiful and powerful beings.\u00a0 We also thank God (and the angels themselves) for giving them to us as our allies in the spiritual battle.\u00a0 Remember \u201cthe spiritual battle\u201d?\u00a0 That\u2019s right, we are members of the Church Militant, and we are engaged in a war, and God has entrusted a lot of his tactical maneuvering to the archangels.\u00a0 The Bible speaks of St Michael and his army putting down Satan\u2019s rebellion and casting the fallen angels out of heaven. (Apocalypse 12)\u00a0 We see St Gabriel entrusted with announcing the birth of the Precursor (St John the Baptizer) and of the Messiah (Jesus himself) to Zechariah and Mary. (Luke 1)\u00a0 St Raphael is the guardian of Tobit\u2019s journey and his family\u2019s faith and prosperity.\u00a0 If there were no spiritual warfare going on, the archangels would probably be less prominent; as it is, however, the devil and his minions energetically strive to dampen our love for Christ and stoke our selfishness in many hidden and devious ways, and so we need as much help as we can get to stay on the \u201cstraight and narrow\u201d path.\u00a0 The archangels provide some of that help. You may want to make a special visit to the Eucharist today, and pray for the archangels to stir up your love for Christ again, shaking off the diabolical dust that seems to have settled over it.\u00a0 I will make the same request from the cramped comfort of this nicely carpeted prison cell. Love, Uncle Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Angela, It sounds a bit like you have put your spiritual life on automatic pilot.\u00a0 That\u2019s understandable, considering how many other things you have going on.\u00a0 Understandable, but not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":145992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3719],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-142241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncle-eddy"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n