The Mission or Ministry of Angels

God sends angels to minister to his purposes among bodily creatures. This sending or mission is not the dispatching of angels upon a journey. To be sent means to be present in a new place in which one was not present before, or to be present where one was but in a new way. An angel is present where it exercises or applies its powers, and not elsewhere. When God has an angel apply its powers to a creature, the angel is sent to that creature. God is the sender and the first principle of the effect produced by the angel sent; God is also the ultimate goal or final cause of the work so produced. The angel is God’s minister or intelligent instrument; by its being sent it rendersministry to God.

It seems that, of the nine orders of angels, only five orders are sent for the external ministry, and that the superior angels are never sent.

Angels are said to assist before the throne of God. All angels assist inasmuch as all permanently possess the beatificvision. But, in a special sense, only the superior angels assist before God’s throne. These superior angels, beholding mysteries in God, communicate what they behold to the inferior angels. Allgood angels see God in the beatific vision, but the superior angels behold deeper and wider mysteries in God than do the lesser angels.By their deeper and wider knowledge of divine mysteries, the superior angels are said to assist.

Angels sent in the external ministry are those whose names indicate some kind of administrative or executive office. These are, in descending rank, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, Angels.