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).

The heavenly powers are not inherently holy, otherwise they would not be different from the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, according to the superiority of one nature over another, they have from the Spirit a certain measure of holiness. The concept of combustion includes the concept of fire, but the other is the combustible substance and the other is fire; so it is in the Heavenly Powers. Their essence is spirit or immaterial fire, as it is written: "Thou makest spirits by Thy angels, and flaming fire by Thy servants" (Heb. 1:7). Therefore they are limited in place and are visible, appearing to holy men in the form of their own bodies. They preserve their dignity by abiding in good, as having freedom in election and never losing their unceasing striving for the true good. Therefore, if we take away the Spirit in our minds, the angelic faces will be upset, the Archangelic authorities will be destroyed, and everything will come into confusion. St. Basil the Great (6:245).

They (the Angels) have expressed and imprinted the good in themselves in such a way that they have become secondary lights, and by means of the outpourings and transmission of the first Light, they are able to enlighten others. Servants of God's will, they are strong both in their natural and acquired strength, they bypass everything, they readily appear to everyone and everywhere because of their zeal for service and because of the lightness of their nature. St. Gregory the Theologian (13:50).

As on a clear noon the sky is clear, not obscured by any cloud, so the nature of the Angels remains bright and brilliant, not darkened by any lust. St. John Chrysostom (35, 303).

Angels have no quarrels, no arguments, no misunderstandings. Each has all that the others have, and all contain within themselves the fullness of perfection, because angelic wealth is not some limited substance to be shared for many, but an immaterial acquisition and richness of understanding. And therefore their perfections, being in each of them complete, make all equally rich. St. Basil the Great (8:359).

Do the elect and the angels have faith and hope in heaven? Angels have neither faith nor hope, because from the time they were established in grace, they have seen Him in whom they must believe and in Whom they must trust. They always see the face of the Heavenly Father, and there is no place in them for either faith or hope, for faith and hope have the invisible as their object. The elect of God in heaven also have no faith and hope, because they see Him in Whom they believed, and have Him in Whom they trusted. Both the Angels and the elect have only immortal love. St. Demetrius of Rostov (103, 73).

The Hierarchy of Bodiless Forces

There are Angels and Archangels, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, and Powers; but these hosts alone exist in heaven, but endless regiments and innumerable tribes, which no word can depict. St. John Chrysostom (35, 525).