ANGELS

The Creation of Angels

Ministering spirits have existence by the will of the Father, are brought into being by the action of the Son, and are maintained in existence by the presence of the Spirit. The purpose of the Angels is holiness and being in holiness. St. Basil the Great (6:224).

None of the faithful doubts that before the creation of the visible world, God created spiritual and heavenly powers, which, knowing that they were created from non-existence for the great glory of blessedness, by the goodness of the Creator, send Him constant thanksgiving and unceasingly glorify Him. St. John Cassian of Rome (Abba Seren 53:309).

God created the Angels and the Archangels all at once, and there are so many of them that they outnumber them. St. John Chrysostom (40, 774).

Nature of Angels

After the Trinity, the invisible Angels are radiant. They walk freely around the great throne, swift minds, flames, and divine spirits, and zealously serve the high commands of God. They have neither marriage nor sorrows, they are not separated from each other by members or monasteries. They are all of one mind and each is identical with himself: one nature, one thought, one love - around the great King God. They do not seek consolation either in children or in spouses, or in carrying out sweet labors for them. They do not desire riches, nor do they desire evil thoughts that the earth brings to mortals. They do not sail the seas, they do not sow to please the unbridled belly, this source of sin. They have one most perfect food – to saturate the mind with the greatness of God and to draw immeasurable light from the Bright Trinity. A lonely life is led by these pure servants of a pure God. They are simple, spiritual, imbued with light, do not originate from the flesh and do not acquire flesh, but remain as they were created. For them in virginity there is prepared the path of Godlikeness, leading to God, in accordance with the intentions of the Immortal, Who wisely rules the feeder of the great world. St. Gregory the Theologian (15:50).

Angels, who have no covering like our flesh, are not hindered from constantly gazing upon the line of God's glory. St. Basil the Great (4, 264).

Angels are incorporeal beings, they do not abide without success, but always receive glory to glory and reason to reason. St. John of the Ladder (57, 203).

Angels do not change. There is neither boy, nor youth, nor old man among the angels, they remain in the state in which they were created in the beginning, and their composition is preserved pure and unchanging. St. Basil the Great (4:272).

Angels and the soul are called incorporeal, as having no flesh, they are called spirit, as subtle beings, completely different from the objects that make up the material world. Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov) (110, 76).

The Moral State of the Angels

For all the heavenly host, it is one thing to send glory to the Creator (4:212).