St. Peter Canisius Apostolate

This week’s Jesus and the Catholic Church Podcast covered the Church’s teaching on the Angels. In the comment box, I received this question:

My question regarding angels is their depth of knowledge about us. I thought the angels are privy to every thought and memory we have from birth to death — except for the contents of our hearts (which is only known to God).  Am I to understand then that the angels will only know what’s revealed to them by us?

Let me see if I can first put the question in context. During the podcast, I read from In Conversation with God by Fr. Fernandez, who says that in order for our guardian angels to know what we need, we need to turn our minds toward them and ask. If that’s the case (this person asks) then what should I make of my previous understanding, namely, that the angels are privy to every thought and memory we’ve had from birth to death?

To answer this question, let me cite a few paragraphs from My Way of Life, which is an excellent summary of the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas by Fr. Farrell and Fr. Healy. They write:

About ourselves, the angels know all there is to be known from the post of an observer who needs no relief, misses nothing, forgets nothing. Beyond that, the angels, all of them, easily penetrate into the regions of our imagination and memory, areas about which the human observer can only guess; which means that our daydreams are not purely private affairs, they are shared by the whole angelic world, our sentimental journeys into the dear days of long ago are never solitary trips. We are not nearly so much alone as we imagine whatever the hour or the place. In relation to the friendly angels, this is to our infinite comfort, and often enough to our acute embarrassment; while it brings home clearly our weak defenses against the hostile horde of devils, the help unwittingly and constantly give to our bitter enemies, and our own desperate need for help from powers on a par with these enemies who so completely outmatch us.

The angels can introduce pictures into our imagination, they can reach into the storehouse of memory and parade the past before our mind’s eye; but there the great natural powers of the angelic world grind to a halt before the impregnable sovereignty of our intellect and our will. Not even the highest of the angels knows what a man is going to do next; the most gifted of the angels cannot know what I am thinking about at this moment. In this privacy of soul, we are the equals of the angels; this territory is inviolable to all but almighty God Himself. Such is the stature of man’s dignity. We are spiritual as well as physical; we are free; our intellect and will are not to be tampered with by any created force. So our thoughts, our deliberate desires, our loves are our own; for them we ourselves must take full credit or full blame. The angels can suggest through imagination and memory, they can coax, entice, threaten, or frighten through these avenues of our sense nature; but we are the ultimate masters in command of our lives.

The key to understanding this passage is to know that our soul has two basic levels. First, the lower level of memory and imagination, and second, the higher level where the intellect and will reside.

The angels both know what is going on in our memory and imagination, and they are able to influence that lower level of our soul by putting images into our head and/or reminding us of past experiences.

The angels, however, cannot enter into the higher level of our soul. They do not know what we are thinking, nor do they know our desires. They can discern what is happening in the higher level of our soul by watching our actions, listening to our conversations, and studying what’s going on in our memories and imaginations. But they can’t know it unless we tell them.

With this in mind, let’s turn to what Fr. Fernandez says in Volume 3 of In Conversation with God (p. 508) about our guardian angels:

In spite of the perfection associated with spiritual nature, the angels do not have divine power or wisdom. They cannot read the inside of our consciences, because they do not have unlimited knowledge. This is why it is necessary for us to let them know what we need of them at every moment. We do not need to use words, but it is necessary to direct ourselves to them with our mind, because their intelligence has the capacity to know what we explicitly imagine or think. Hence the frequent recommendation to foster a deep friendship with our own Guardian Angel.

If we allow for a basic difference of terminology, it seems that Fr. Ferrell and Fr. Fernandez are saying the same thing — namely, that the angels are unable to penetrate into our innermost self, into our intellect and our wills. They cannot, in a manner of speaking, read our minds or know our desires. The only way they can know what we are thinking or what we want is if we tell them.

Therefore, a fundamental requirement for having a relationship with our Guardian Angel is to speak to him about our thoughts and desires. Once he knows, he can help us in innumerable ways.

From a homily on the Gospels by Saint Gregory the Great, pope (my emphases and comments):

You should be aware that the word “angel” denotes a function rather than a nature. Those holy spirits of heaven have always indeed been spirits. They can only be called angels when they deliver some message. [Conversely, we call the evil spirits "devils" because they are our adversaries.] Moreover, those who deliver messages of lesser importance are called angels; and those who proclaim messages of supreme importance are called archangels.

And so it was that not merely an angel but the archangel Gabriel was sent to the Virgin Mary. It was only fitting that the highest angel should come to announce the greatest of all messages.

Some angels are given proper names to denote the service they are empowered to perform. In that holy city, where perfect knowledge flows from the vision of almighty God, those who have no names may easily be known. But personal names are assigned to some, not because they should not be known without them, but rather to denote their ministry when they come among us. Thus, Michael means “Who is like God?”; Gabriel is “The Strength of God”; and Raphael is “God’s Remedy.” [Our knowledge of the good spirits is strictly practical: we know them only as they relate to us. But in heaven, when we are able to see them as they truly are, we shall know them in their essence, as they are in-themselves.]

Whenever some act of wondrous power must be performed, Michael is sent, so that his action and his name may make it clear that no one can do what God does by his superior power. So also our ancient foe desired in his pride to be like God, saying: “I will ascend into heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars of heaven; I will be like the Most High.” He will be allowed to remain in power until the end of the world when he will be destroyed in the final punishment. Then, he will fight with the archangel Michael, as we are told by John: “A battle was fought with Michael the archangel.” [In other words, the angel who is named "Who is like God?" casts out of heaven and defeats the angel who aspired to be like God.]

So too Gabriel, who is called God’s strength, was sent to Mary. He came to announce the One who appeared as a humble man to quell the cosmic powers. Thus God’s strength announced the coming of the Lord of the heavenly powers, might in battle.

Raphael means, as I have said, God’s remedy, for when he touched Tobit’s eyes in order to cure him, he banished the darkness of his blindness. Thus, since he is to heal, he is rightly called God’s remedy.