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I didn't expect to receive such an elaborate answer from
Magisterium A.I.but thought the rest of the AAC readers would find it interesting.
Mike
Dear Betty,
Yes, guardian angels can communicate with one another. As pure spirits belonging to the lowest choir of angels, they share in the general capacity of angels to "speak" to each other—not through physical sounds or verbal language, but through a spiritual process of manifesting thoughts by directing their intellects toward one another, infusing intelligible species, or transmitting concepts by an act of will. (1, 2, 3, 4)
The Nature of Angelic Communication.
Catholic tradition, particularly as articulated by St. Thomas Aquinas, affirms that angels communicate among themselves. This "speech" is an interior, non-sensual act where one angel reveals its thoughts to another. There must be some kind of speech among angels, for... one angel does not have direct and particular knowledge of what lies hidden in the heart of another; consequently, an angel must have some way of manifesting his thought to another. This way can be called angelic speech, for what we call speech in our own case is simply the manifestation of an interior word, which we mentally conceive. (3)
Aquinas explains that intelligible forms exist in an angel's intellect in three ways:
habitually (potential),
in act (actual consideration), and
in relation to another angel (through the will directing the form outward).
When an angel wills it, this form becomes perceptible to the recipient angel, allowing selective communication: "they can speak to one without speaking to others, and without being heard or understood by all." (3, 4, 5) No physical distance is required, as angelic action is spiritual and not bound by place. (5, 6)
This holds across the angelic hierarchy: inferior angels can "speak" to superiors, and vice versa, as Gregory the Great notes: "God speaks to angels, and angels speak to God. On the same principle... superior angels can talk to the inferior, and inferior to the superior." (7) Higher angels instruct lower ones by purifying (removing ignorance), illuminating (sharing light), and perfecting (guiding to higher knowledge). (8)
Scripture supports this implicitly, as angels act as intermediaries (e.g., Hebrews 1:14; Matthew 18:10), and early Fathers like St. Basil and St. Bernard emphasize their guiding ministry, which presupposes coordinated action.(1, 9)
Guardian Angels as Participants.
Guardian angels are specifically the lowest order of angels assigned to individuals from birth (or conception, per the "mind of the Church"), ministering to lead souls to Heaven. (1, 10) They pray for us, protect, guide, and offer our good works to God. (11) As angels, they retain the full spiritual faculties of their nature, including communication:
St. Thomas holds that "only the lowest orders of angels are sent to men, and consequently that they alone are our guardians," but they operate like other angels on our senses and imagination (not directly on wills). (1)
Their ministry involves constant presence before God (Matthew 18:10) and collaboration in divine providence (CCC 350), implying interaction with fellow angels. (1, 12)
Popular piety and liturgy invoke them collectively (e.g., Angele Dei prayer; feasts), reflecting their unified service. (9, 13, 14)
350 Angels are spiritual creatures who glorify God without ceasing and who serve his saving plans for other creatures: "The angels work together for the benefit of us all" (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh I, 114, 3, ad 3).
351 The angels surround Christ their Lord. They serve him especially in the accomplishment of his saving mission to men.
352 The Church venerates the angels who help her on her earthly pilgrimage and protect every human being.
353 God willed the diversity of his creatures and their own particular goodness, their interdependence and their order. He destined all material creatures for the good of the human race. Man, and through him all creation, is destined for the glory of God.
354 Respect for laws inscribed in creation and the relations which derive from the nature of things is a principle of wisdom and a foundation for morality.
No teaching restricts guardians from inter-angelic communication; deviations in piety (e.g., overly simplistic views) are warned against, but orthodox devotion aligns with this reality. (15)
In Summary, guardian angels communicate spiritually with each other to fulfill their protective roles, as affirmed by Aquinas, encyclopedias, catechisms, and liturgy—fostering gratitude for their unseen ministry. (1, 3, 9)
Hebrews 1:14 puts the doctrine in its clearest light:
"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them, who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?"
This is the function of the guardian angels; they are to lead us, if we wish it, to the Kingdom of Heaven.
St. Thomas teaches us (Summa Theologica I:113:4) that only the lowest orders of angels are sent to men, and consequently that they alone are our guardians, though Scotus and Durandus would rather say that any of the members of the angelic host may be sent to execute the Divine commands. Not only the baptized, but every soul that cometh into the world receives a guardian spirit; St. Basil, however (Homily on Psalm 43), and possibly St. John Chrysostom (Homily 3 on Colossians) would hold that only Christians were so privileged.
Our guardian angels can act upon our senses (I:111:4) and upon our imaginations (I:111:3) — not, however, upon our wills, except "per modum suadentis", viz. by working on our intellect, and thus upon our will, through the senses and the imagination. (I:106:2; and I:111:2) Finally, they are not separated from us after death, but remain with us in Heaven, not, however, to help us attain salvation, but "ad aliquam illustrationem" (I:108:7, ad 3am). . . . (more)
Objection 1: It seems not, for commenting on the words of Job (28:17), Gold or crystal cannot equal it, Gregory says: In Heaven everyone will be seen by others as now he does not even see himself. But while on earth a person does not have to speak to himself in order to know his own idea. Consequently, in Heaven it will not be necessary for him to speak to another so that he can know it. Hence, speech is unnecessary for beatified angels.
Objection 2: In the same passage, Gregory writes: When one’s face is seen, in the same instant, his conscience will be penetrated. Therefore, in Heaven speech is not required for one person to know another’s concept.
Objection 3: Referring to angels, Maximus writes as follows: "When spiritual creatures meet and leave each other, one knows far more clearly what the other wishes to convey than were they to speak to each other. For, in some way, they silently discuss things and communicate their thoughts to each other." . . . (more)
For the will of an angel causes him to turn actually to the forms he possesses, as it were, habitually; and, similarly, it makes his intellect actually more perfect with respect to the form within him, so that the angel is perfected, not only by this intellectual form itself, but also by the relation it has to another angel. When this takes place, his thought is perceived by the other angels; and, in this sense, one angel is said to speak to another. We would have the same way of speaking if our intellect could be directed to intelligibles without having to have recourse to media; but, because it is the nature of our intelligence to receive from the senses, sensible signs are used to express our interior concepts, and by these signs we manifest our heart’s thoughts.
Reply Objection 1: Gregory’s statement can be understood of both physical and spiritual vision; for in Heaven, after the bodies of the saints have been glorified, a saint will be able to see with his physical eyes the interior of another’s body — something which is now impossible. . . . (more)
Pure spirits have a language which, although not audible or corporeal, is nonetheless quite intelligible; it occurs when an act of their will directs their thought towards him to whom they wish to make it known. Thus, they can speak to one without speaking to others, and without being heard or understood by all. Angelic language seems to be quite simply transmission of a thought, by an act of will, towards some other spirit, who then alone has knowledge of it. (Petau: De Angelis, book 1, chapter XII, nos. 7 and 11)
... their thought towards him to whom they wish to make it known. Thus, they can speak to one without speaking to others, and without being heard or understood by all. Angelic language seems to be quite simply transmission of a thought, by an act of will, towards some other spirit, who then alone has knowledge of it. (Petau: De Angelis, book 1, chapter XII, nos. 7 and 11). . . (more)
Response: An agent acts according to its manner of existing. Hence, things that are material and circumscribed by place have actions that are material and circumscribed by place; and things that are spiritual act in a spiritual manner only.
Consequently, because an angel as a knower is in no way circumscribed by place, the action of his intellect has no relation to place. Hence, since his speech is an operation of his intellect, local distance or proximity does not affect it. Therefore, one angel can understand the speech of another, whether that other be in a near or distant place—in the sense in which we say that angels are in place.
Reply Objection 1: That arrival and departure should be understood, not according to place, but according to the angels’ turning to one another.
Reply Objection 2: The statement that an angel is where he operates is to be under stood as referring to an operation which he carries out on some body; and this operation gets its place from that in which it terminates. . . (more)
Is a determinate local distance required in order that one angel can speak to another?
Objection 1: It seems that it is, for whenever arrival and departure are involved, there is necessarily a determinate distance. But, as Maximus says, angels see each other’s thoughts as they approach and depart from one another. Therefore.
Objection 2: According to Damascene, an angel is where he operates. Consequently, if he speaks to another angel, he must be where his listener is; hence, some determinate distance is involved.
Objection 3: We read in Isaiah (6:3): They cried one to another. Now, the only reason for making cries is that a distance separates us from the one to whom we are speaking. Therefore, it seems that distance impedes the speech of angels.
Objection 4: Speech must be carried from the one speaking to the one listening. Now, this is not possible unless local distance separates the angel speaking from the one listening, because spiritual speech cannot be carried by a material medium. . . (more)
Objection 1: It seems not, for in its explanation of that verse in the first Epistle to the Corinthians (13:1), If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, the Gloss reads as follows: "These tongues are the means by which the superior angels tell the inferior angels what they are first to learn about the will of God."
Consequently, speech, an act of the tongue, belongs only to the higher angels.
Objection 2: Whenever anyone speaks, something takes place in his listener. Now, in the higher angels, nothing can take place that is caused by the lower, because the higher are not in potency with respect to the lower; rather, the opposite is true, since the superior angels have more act and less potency. Consequently, the lower angels cannot speak to the higher.
Objection 3: To the notion of thought speech adds that of infusing knowledge. But the lower angels cannot infuse anything into the higher angels, because in that case they would be acting upon them, and this is impossible. . . . (more)
Consequently, the working of miracles is said to pertain to the virtues.
According to Dionysius, however, the highest order of this hierarchy is that of the principalities; in his reckoning we are to understand that the princes are they who have charge over individual peoples, while the angels have charge over individual men, and the archangels announce to individual men those affairs that pertain to the salvation of all.
Since a lower power acts in virtue of a higher power, a lower order performs actions proper to a higher order by acting in virtue of that higher power. But the higher orders possess in a more eminent way whatever is proper to the lower orders. Thus all things are in a certain sense common to the various orders. However, they receive their proper names from properties that are characteristic of each order. Nevertheless, the lowest order of all retains the common name of angels for itself, for the reason that it acts, as it were, in virtue of all the rest. Furthermore, since the higher naturally influences the lower, and since intellectual action consists in instructing or teaching, the higher angels, in instructing the lower angels, are said to purify, illuminate, and perfect them. . . (more)
216. Down through the centuries, the faithful have translated into various devotional exercises the teaching of the faith in relation to the ministry of Angels: the Holy Angels have been adopted as patrons of cities and corporations; great shrines in their honour have developed such as Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, San Michele della Chiusa in Piemonte and San Michele Gargano in Apulia, each appointed with specific feast days; hymns and devotions to the Holy Angels have also been composed.
Popular piety encompasses many forms of devotion to the Guardian Angels. St. Basil the Great (+378) taught that "each and every member of the faithful has a Guardian Angel to protect, guard and guide them through life"(292). This ancient teaching was consolidated by biblical and patristic sources and lies behind many forms of piety.
Bernard of Clairvaux (+1153) was a great master and a notable promoter of devotion to the Guardian Angels. For him, they were a proof "that Heaven denies us nothing that assists us", and hence, "these celestial spirits have been placed at our sides to protect us, instruct us and to guide us"(293). . . . (more)
Jerome in his commentary on the above words of our Lord says: "The dignity of a soul is so great, that each has a guardian angel from its birth." The general doctrine that the angels are our appointed guardians is considered to be a point of faith, but that each individual member of the human race has his own individual guardian angel is not of faith (de fide); the view has, however, such strong support from the Doctors of the Church that it would be rash to deny it (cf. St. St. Jerome, supra) Peter the Lombard (Sentences, lib. II, dist. xi) was inclined to think that one angel had charge of several individual human beings. Bernard's beautiful homilies (11-14) on the ninetieth Psalm breathe the spirit of the Church without however deciding the question. The Bible represents the angels not only as our guardians, but also as actually interceding for us. "The angel Raphael (Tobit 12:12) says: "I offered thy prayer to the Lord" (cf. Job 5:1 (Septuagint), and 33:23 (Vulgate); Apocalypse 8:4)
The Catholic cult of the angels is thus thoroughly scriptural. Perhaps the earliest explicit declaration of it is to be found in St. Ambrose's words: "We should pray to the angels who are given to us as guardians" (De Viduis, ix); (cf. St Augustine, Reply to Faustus XX.21) . . . (more)
* Angels are spiritual creatures who glorify God without ceasing and who serve his saving plans for other creatures: "The angels work together for the benefit of us all" ".
In one of the prefaces, God is praised and thanked for the favour of angelic patronage (patrociniis angelorum) In the collect of the third Mass the intercessory power of saints and angels is alike appealed to ("quae [oblatio] angelis tuis sanctisque precantibus et indulgentiam nobis referat et remedia procuret aeterna" (Sacramentarium Leonianum, ed. Feltoe, 107-8) These extracts make it plain that the substantial idea which underlies the modern feast of Guardian Angels was officially expressed in the early liturgies.
In the "Horologium magnum" of the Greeks there is a proper Office of Guardian Angels (Roman edition, 329-334) entitled "A supplicatory canon to man's Guardian Angel composed by John the Monk" (Nilles, II, 503), which contains a clear expression of belief in the doctrine that a guardian angel is assigned to each individual. This angel is thus addressed
"Since thou the power (ischyn) receivest my soul to guard, cease never to cover it with thy wings." (Nilles, II, 506) . . . (more)
The angels in the life of the Church.
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335 In her liturgy, the Church joins with the angels to adore the thrice-holy God. She invokes their assistance (in the funeral liturgy's In Paradisum deducant te angeli. . .[May the angels lead you into Paradise. . .]). Moreover, in the Cherubic Hymn of the Byzantine Liturgy, she celebrates the memory of certain angels more particularly (St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, and the guardian angels).
217. Popular devotion to the Holy Angels, which is legitimate and good, can, however, also give rise to possible deviations: when, as sometimes can happen, the faithful are taken by the idea that the world is subject to demiurgical struggles, or an incessant battle between good and evil spirits, or Angels and daemons, in which man is left at the mercy of superior forces and over which he is helpless; such cosmologies bear little relation to the true Gospel vision of the struggle to overcome the Devil, which requires:
moral commitment,
a fundamental option for the Gospel,
humility and prayer;
When the daily events of life, which have nothing or little to do with our progressive maturing on the journey towards Christ, are read schematically or simplistically, indeed childishly, so as to ascribe all setbacks to the Devil and all success to the Guardian Angels.
The practice of assigning names to the Holy Angels should be discouraged, except in the cases of Gabriel, Raphael and Michael whose names are contained in Holy Scripture. . . (more)
