Ainu/Fea

[Gandalf_theGrey]

At the kind request of mark12_30,

* bows * ... please permit me a couple of musings and quotes on the topic of angels and how their spiritual being relates to the spiritual souls of men.

To my mind, these definitions can certainly apply to piosenniel's question of how to relate the ainur to the fea, too! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Firstly, angels are spiritual beings who possess intellect and will. In humans, the soul's intellect and will is what animates/gives life to the physical body.

I differ a bit from Birdland in that I was taught there were nine choirs of angels:

Seraphim
Cherubim
Thrones
Dominions
Virtues
Powers
Principalities
Archangels
Angels

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the "form" of the body: i.e., it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather, their union forms a single nature.

page 93, CCC, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1994

Also noteworthy:

Sometimes the soul is distinguished from the spirit: St. Paul for instance prays that God may sanctify his people "wholly," with "spirit and soul and body" kept sound and blameless at the Lord's coming. The Church teaches that this distinction does not introduce a duality into the soul. "Spirit" signifies that from creation man is ordered to a supernatural end and that his soul can gratuitously be raised beyond all it deserves to communion with God.

page 93-94, CCC, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1994

[ September 09, 2002: Message edited by: Gandalf_theGrey ]