Interfaith Healing Center

Creator God, this is the Season of Advent – the waiting for the arrival of the Divine Light! It is a time of remembering the birth of the great avatar and Master, Jesus! Be with us, we pray, O Lord, that we too may experience the joy and awe of the arrival of the Divine among us! Amen.

The Koran was dictated to the Prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel, Divine Messenger. At the age of 40 while engaged in a meditative retreat, Muhammed received his first revelation from Allah through the Archangel Gabriel. This revelation is called Qur’an.

“When the angel said: Oh, Marium, surely Allah gives you good news with a Word of one whose name is the Messiah - Isa, son of Marium <Jesus>- worthy of regard in this world and the hereafter, and of those who are made near to Allah.”

Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.

But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.

Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years."

The angel answered, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.

26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." 34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God." 38 "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.

Vedantists celebrate the birth of the Oriental Christ every Christmas Eve. “Meditate on Christ Within,” worshipers are told as they do darshan (sacred seeing) of Christ the Yogi and “feel his living presence.” In Vedanta Societies nationwide Jesus continues to be revered as a Divinity today. … According to Vedantist teaching Jesus is one avatar among many – one of many periodic descents of Divinity into the world.

Buddhists call angels Devas. Muslims call them Malaikah. Mormons refer to them as Ministering Spirits. In Christianity they are called Angels.

Angels in Judaism are called Malachim, and are Messengers of God who help carry out God’s work and plans. Angels are purely spiritual beings who do not have a spiritual form. Physical descriptions of angels from the Hebrew Bible are metaphorical. There is no angel worship in Judaism and in Judaism they believe that it is only who God who determines what happens on earth. Angels merely carry out God’s will.

Traditionally, Michael is a Guardian of the People, Israel. He carries out God’s mission of kindness. Gabriel is the Angel of Judgment and Strength. Uriel is an Angel who Illumines the Right Path. Raphael is a Healer.

We see an angel stop Abraham from sacrificing Isaac; and we remember the famous story of Jacob wrestling with an angel. But, in general angels initiate the communication from God, and not vice-versa.

Mormonism describes angels as being one of the two kinds of bodies in heaven – as resurrected personages. They are either ministering spirits, or more evolved human beings who have flesh and bone. They can appear to people in a very literal sense. But, each person does not have an assigned Guardian Angel. They cannot interfere with human free-will. Mormons believe that their founding prophet, Joseph Smith, was visited by the angel Moroni who led him to the Book of Mormon. Moroni was once human, the son of the prophet Mormon, and Moroni became an angel after he died. A golden statue of Moroni sits on top of most Mormon temples.

Protestant Christianity believes that angels are messengers and carry out God’s will. Some angels are Guardian Angels. Angels are recognized as very powerful beings. Angels are created as spirit beings and not as humans. They can take on a physical form if doing so will help them do their work on earth. They are genderless and invisible. They protect people from harm and provide guidance and assurance to believers, but not all angels are good. Most Protestant Theologians warn against praying to angels as is done in Catholicism, as they see it as Angel Worship.

In Catholicism, the hierarchy of angels and worship of Angels (ie praying to angels) is not Biblical and has pagan roots.

Christianity teaches that Lucifer is a fallen angel who rebelled against God and was kicked-out of Heaven.

Hinduism has different types of spirit beings who act in a similar capacity as angels. They have Apsaras, who are heavenly nymphs; Angiris, spirits who preside over sacrifices; Lipika, who regulate karma; Devas (shining one), minor gods. They have no specific individual angels.

Angels in Islam are messengers and intermediaries from Allah to the world. They have no physical shape. Everyone has 2 guardian angels in their lives who watch over all that they do.

Rev. Tourjee will read a selection from Edgar Cayce’s Angels and Archangels. The selection is about a woman traveling on an emergency to her daughter who is premature labor, alone and collapsed in her home. Enroute the woman’s car breaks-down with transmission dying. Mysteriously three men in white appear, crawl under the car, and bring it back to life within 15 minutes without even a speck of dirt or grease on their white clothing. The woman is sent on her way; she arrive just in time to save her bleeding daughter and unborn child. She knows that she has encountered angels.

Aramaic is a Middle Easter language that was the native tongue of Jesus of Nazareth, and common to the Israel/Palestine region during the first century C. E.

All the Semitic languages - including Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic - use a root system that allows one word to hold multiple meanings. Thus, a tradition of translation arose in the Middle East that led to each word of a prophet being considered on many different levels of meaning.

From the Musical CD by SAVAE, Ancient Echoes: Music from the Time of Jesus and Jerusalem’s Second Temple

Translation of the Aramaic Lord’s Prayer from Desert Wisdom by Neil Douglas-Klotz

ANGELS AMONG US

ALABAMA - Written by Becky Hobbs

I was walking home from school on a cold winter day.

Took a shortcut through the woods, and I lost my way.

It was getting late, and I was scared and alone.

But then a kind old man took my hand and led me home.

Mama couldn't see him, but he was standing there.

And I knew in my heart, he was the answer to my prayers.

Angels Among Us Chorus

Oh I believe there are angels among us.

Sent down to us from somewhere up above.

They come to you and me in our darkest hours.

To show us how to live, to teach us how to give.

To guide us with a light of love.

When life held troubled times, and had me down on my knees.

There's always been someone there to come along and comfort me.

A kind word from a stranger, to lend a helping hand.

A phone call from a friend, just to say I understand.

And aint it kind of funny that at the dark end of the road.

Someone lights the way with just a single ray of hope.

Angels Among Us Chorus

They wear so many faces, show up in the strangest places.

To guide us with their mercy, in our time of need.

Angels Among Us Chorus

To guide us with a light of love.

Hours

A sacred space --

a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be.

This is the place of creative incubation.
At first you might find that nothing happens there.

But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen . . .
Your sacred space is where you find yourself again and again.
-- Joseph Campbell

Dedicated as a sacred space where you may come for renewal & healing of the spirit.

Interfaith Healing Center

Angels Among Us: A Worship Service

Hours

A sacred space --

a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be.

This is the place of creative incubation. At first you might find that nothing happens there.

But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen . . . Your sacred space is where you find yourself again and again. -- Joseph Campbell

This is the place of creative incubation.
At first you might find that nothing happens there.

But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen . . .
Your sacred space is where you find yourself again and again.
-- Joseph Campbell