Pinoy angels

ANGELS ARE spiritual beings who are said to be messengers of God. They generally have wings. They say you can tell if an apparition is a ghost if it walks on two feet, because angels have none. They just sort of float.

Angels are supposed to be asexual, even if they all have male names and look like girls. Cherubims and seraphims are edited angels with only faces and wings. Seraphims sing; cherubims are often mistaken for cupids and depicted with bows and arrows.

The Archangel Michael, who defeated Lucifer in the War of Heaven, is a military-style angel of God dressed in breastplate, miniskirt and boots. It was Archangel Gabriel who announced the conception of Jesus in her womb to a startled Mary.

Archangel Raphael, the healing angel, is depicted carrying a fish with which he cured the blind Tobias (cod liver oil, I guess). Uriel is the fourth archangel. He is not as popular as the other three, and I don’t know his job.

We are each given a personal guardian angel to guide us until we are seven years old. Then he withdraws and lets us live our own life, rudderless. They return when we are 40 to guide us into old age.  These Pinoy angels were in progress when I was not quite 70 and had just begun to paint.