Do Angels Have Wings?

[philothea]

[quote name='FutureSoror' date='Aug 11 2005, 10:57 PM']I don't know about spiritual bodies, that seems like an oxymoron (I think I spelled that right...) to me.  They are pure spirit.  When they appear to people on earth they have to take some visible form for us to percieve them, but it is usually not an ovious 'angelic' appearance as far as I can tell.  Usually people mistake them for something else until afterwards, or until they reveal who they are.  I don't think their wings are a really concrete aspect about them, just a sort of device for explaining something we can't really explain otherwise.  We'll probably get to heaven and go 'Ohhh, I get what they meant now.' It seems to be a kind of highly evolved artistic tradition too, just like how they are sometimes painted like little naked babies.
[right][snapback]682892[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]
I remember Mother Angelica would get all annoyed by paintings of "baby" angels... with navels. Where were they supposed to have got those?!

It's funny how usually the first thing an angel says is, "Don't be afraid." I guess they must be frightening to see!

[scardella]

the real question is

"How many angels can fit on the head of a pin?"

[Mikhail]

Wow, I think that this is the first time I agree with the majority of people on here. ;-)

Angels, like all spirits, are preternatural. Like many of the things of God, our minds can't fathom how it would work. Instead of trying to fill in the blanks with things that make sense to us, we should just accept it by faith. I happen to know for a fact that angels don't have wings. Now, if you want a physical answer to what Angels consist of, I suppose the best explaination would be that they are pure energy. Energy can take any form in the universe and move without hinderance through even solid matter (which, as everyone knows, is made up mainly of empty space). However, to try to explain such things is to put God in a box. i.e. to try to make him conform to the limitations of our feeble minds.

Many people believe God and the spirits of heaven look like our physical bodies because God said "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." However, this flies in the face of the fact that Jesus "took the form of a man". However, if one thinks that the "image" God was talking about is the spirit, it makes perfect sense. The body is merely the vessel which holds the soul.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='Era Might' date='Aug 11 2005, 06:12 PM']Angels have no bodies. They do not have wings, anymore than Jesus is really a lamb or a lion. These are symbols.
[right][snapback]682477[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

Jesus isn't really a lion?

[FutureSoror]

Of course, if it comforts us to think of angels as having wings, there's nothing against having that image in our minds. It sometimes seems like wings synonomus with thier splendor.

[White Knight]

Well, according to the Gospels, there were two angels that appeared as men in shining white garments to tell the Mary and the other women who were going to go see Jesus in the Tomb, The Angels said that Jesus Rose from the dead. This is New Testment. In the old testment you have all kinds of Angels some with muiltable faces, some with 6 wings. etc etc.

[StColette]

[quote name='White Knight' date='Aug 14 2005, 09:48 PM']Well, according to the Gospels, there were two angels that appeared as men in shining white garments to tell the Mary and the other women who were going to go see Jesus in the Tomb, The Angels said that Jesus Rose from the dead. This is New Testment. In the old testment you have all kinds of Angels some with muiltable faces, some with 6 wings. etc etc.
[right][snapback]685138[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

This made me think of Summa Theologica's section on Angels

Angels need an assumed body, not for themselves, but on our account; that by conversing familiarly with men they may give evidence of that intellectual companionship which men expect to have with them in the life to come. Moreover that angels assumed bodies under the Old Law was a figurative indication that the Word of God would take a human body; because all the apparitions in the Old Testament were ordained to that one whereby the Son of God appeared in the flesh.

The body assumed is united to the angel not as its form, nor merely as its mover, but as its mover represented by the assumed movable body. For as in the Sacred Scripture the properties of intelligible things are set forth by the likenesses of things sensible, in the same way by Divine power sensible bodies are so fashioned by angels as fittingly to represent the intelligible properties of an angel. And this is what we mean by an angel assuming a body.

[Fides_et_Ratio]

[quote name='philothea' date='Aug 13 2005, 06:52 PM']I remember Mother Angelica would get all annoyed by paintings of "baby" angels... with navels.  Where were they supposed to have got those?!
[right][snapback]684334[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]


I never noticed.

[Paladin D]

After pondering over this subject, reading your posts, and reading more of the book, the answer does make sense now. Thanks everyone.

[Melchisedec]

More importantly do angels NEED wings?

[phatcatholic]

for more on angels, go here:
[url="http://www.phatmass.com/directory/index.php/cat_id/111"]http://www.phatmass.com/directory/index.php/cat_id/111[/url]