CatholicTheology.info

Choose a topic from Part 1:

• God and His Attributes
• The Blessed Trinity
• Creation
• The Angels
  • 50. The Substance of the Angels
  • 51. Angels and Bodies
  • 52. Angels and Place
  • 53. Angels and Local Movement
  • 54. The Knowledge of the Angels
  • 55. THe Medium of Angelic Knowledge
  • 56. Angelic Knowledge of Nonmaterial Things
  • 57. Angelic Knowledge of Material Things
  • 58. The Mode or Manner of Angelic Knowing
  • 59. The Will of Angels
  • 60. Love in the Angels
  • 61. The Creation of the Angels
  • 62. Grace and Glory of the Angels
  • 63. Sin of the Fallen Angels
  • 64. State of the Fallen Angels
• The Days of Creation
• Man
• The Divine Government

55. THe Medium of Angelic Knowledge

1. God gives the angels their knowledge of things when he brings them into existence. This knowledge is creatural knowledge,and hence is not comprehensive, as is the knowledge of God alone.

2. An angel's ideas or intelligible species are directly imparted by the Creator; hence an angel has no need to learn. God gives to angels that extent of knowledge that he chooses to give.

3. And the extent of knowledge is not the same in all the angels. There are higher and lower angels. Each receives what is fitting and necessary for its status and the service it is to render, and therefore some angels know more than others. As we shall see later, the imparting of knowledge to angels by the Creator is comparable to light that shines through a succession of panes of glass, one under the other, so that while the light pours out at once and penetrates the whole series of panes, it may be truly said that the lower panes receive their light from the upper panes. And so the lower angels (that is, the less perfectly endowed angelic natures) are illuminated or instructed by the higher angels. Nor, as we see, does this conflict with the fact that angels have their knowledge from God as soon as they come into existence.

"It is better to be burdened and in company with the strong than to be unburdened and with the weak. When you are burdened you are close to God, your strength, who abides with the afflicted. When you are relieved of the burden you are close to yourself, your own weakness; for virtue and strength of soul grow and are confirmed in the trials of patience."
St John of the Cross, OCD - Doctor of the Church

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"As the flesh is nourished by food, so is man supported by prayers"
St Augustine

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"If, devout soul, it is your will to please God and live a life of serenity in this world, unite yourself always and in all things to the divine will. Reflect that all the sins of your past wicked life happened because you wandered from the path of God's will. For the future, embrace God's good pleasure and say to him in every happening: "Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight." "
St Alphonsus de Liguori

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