Categories: uncategorized
Date: 13 October 2004 12:27:40
According to a new "spirituality survey" for ITV's This Morning (I don't watch it, guv, I was just reading the newswires) one in three people in Britain believe in angels - and one in five believe that they have been helped by one.
Where are all these angels coming from? Since most of them seem to be sweet, cuddly guardian beings, they don't fit in terribly well with my idea of the Principalities and Powers. Maybe I've got it wrong - I think if I saw an angel I would be totally terrified - I think of Jacob wrestling, Mary and Gabriel, the Shepherds. Not very cute - but very awful in the true sense.
Angelus - comes from the Greek meaning messenger, I think? But these ITV angels don't seem to be carrying a message from anyone, just floating around in the ether being benevolent. I wonder what they really are, and why they have become so popular without any of the Christian trappings you would expect angels to have?
And apropos of nearly nothing, here is my favourite John Betjeman poem, which does in fact mention the word Angel. It's called In a Bath Teashop
"Let us not speak, for the love we bear one another
Let us just hold hands and look."
She, such an ordinary little woman,
He, such a thumping crook,
But both, for a moment, little lower than the angels,
In the teashop's inglenook.
I don't know why I like that - it's very old-fashioned - something about the transforming power of love, maybe. Perhaps I've just spent too much time hanging out in teashops.