By Michael H. Brown
In Dreams, In Prayer, On The Road Are Not Just Signs Of Times But Angels Who Sing
First story
Have you ever heard an angel? We ask this due to news of late: according to a television report, a girl in Texas started to see angels after an experience with an image of Guadalupe. They are always there, she claims, for her to see — in a mode of protection. Around the same time, an account came across the internet of angelic voices allegedly caught on tape.
Specifically, this was of angelic singing, and while controversy no doubt swirls around that claim of recordings (we listened to one of these years ago, which seemed to presage a great coming famine in China), through the years we have heard from folks who supposedly have witnessed, if not angelic songs, the music of the spheres.
“This happened to me in the spring of 1995,” writes Ralph D. Nichols, a senior military analyst from Fort Leavenworth. “I awoke precisely at three a.m. and heard the most indescribably beautiful string music. When I could not derive the source of where the music was coming from, for some reason I became frightened. I tried to raise myself out of bed, but I could not move a muscle! Oh my God, I thought. Is this what it is like to have one’s full mental faculties, but be paralyzed and probably considered a ‘human vegetable’?
“I appealed directly to our Lord, and asked for His help. Suddenly I heard a female voice (a locution; was it an angel or the Blessed Mother?) say to me: ‘All glory and praise to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!’ Immediately after she recited this I heard a host of angelic voices-choir singing hosannas and praises to the Holy Trinity. I then felt a tingling sensation that emanated from the bottom of my feet, slowly to the top of my head. I could move again! I got down on my hands and knees and thanked our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for suffering and dying on the Cross for a sinner like me.”
Pray, pray, pray. Pray always. Pray from the heart. This is what pierces the clouds!
“To ‘pray without ceasing’ is to be so wholeheartedly attuned to God’s love, that we are ‘hearing’ the heavenly songs of praise with every heartbeat,” said another viewer. “It is real, and it is how we find those moments of Godly inspiration in our lives.
“My own experience was over ten years ago, during a time of deep meditation. I was almost, but not quite, unconscious. I began to ‘hear’ an angel choir singing, but each syllable came to me with each beat of my heart. The sound was indescribable, but not loud. As I strained my ears to hear it, it faded, and as I relaxed it became louder. For as long as I could maintain relaxed consciousness, the singing continued, and the words were praises to God. I fell asleep listening. Words will never describe the beauty of the sounds.”
Our ability to discern is constantly challenged. Have you had encounters with angelic singing? Let us know. Then there are matters like the cloud on the left. Do angels mingle in the atmosphere?
“I was driving from one school where I teach to another, when I looked up and there was a strange, vertical oval cloud in an otherwise cloudless sky,” writes Kathleen Saunders from Missouri. Except for that wisp, the sky was even larger than portrayed here; we had to crop the photo.
“It was on the corner of West Watson and Lindbergh Roads in Sunset Hills, a suburb of St. Louis. Before I took the picture, it looked like Our Lady of Guadalupe, with the rays visible to her sides, but these had dissipated by the time I took the photo. As I watched it, it took the form of Our Lady. I had to pull over to take this photo with my cell phone, which didn’t come out very well. The image seemed a lot larger in real life, and much more distinct. By the time I could pull over to snap this shot, it had already lost some of its distinct features.”
Manifestations can be like that. They are in the eye (and heart) of the beholder. Whether or not we hear or see them, angels are undoubtedly at work, along, of course, with the saints. To be recalled especially during these Forty Days: most powerful are direct prayers to Jesus.
“I work in a large office building of over 500 people in Madison, Wisconsin,” writes a viewer named Steve. “Just recently I moved to a different location within the building next to a woman who had ‘tons’ of pinups-photos of a celebrity at her desk which included immodest ones. Some of the photos have been up for about a year.
“This person would take great pride in ‘showing the pictures off ‘ and admitted that she was obsessed with the celebrity. None of the co-workers or managers ever had a problem with it. Not knowing if I should complain to management — or confront the person herself about the improper pictures — I decided to pray a novena to the Infant Jesus of Prague (the same prayer Padre Pio said daily), asking Him to come down from Heaven and remove the photos Himself.
“I promised that I would spread the Infants devotional prayer cards if the prayer was granted. I also prayed to Padre Pio during the nine days. After the ninth day of the novena, when the women came into work that day, I sat in shock and amazement in my office chair as I watched her take all the photos down and they haven’t been up since. I see her daily but the reason for her removing them is still a mystery!
“Thanks, Infant of Prague, and Padre Pio, for ‘cleaning up’ my workspace.”
03/05/07
Spirit Daily
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At Periphery Of Perception Are Angels Who Sometimes Show Themselves In Song
Second story
We had realized that many people were having experiences with angels, but we had no idea how widespread was a specific phenomenon: the hearing of “angelic singing.”
But that certainly seems to be the case, as we learned after running a story (above) on such music. We were deluged. Many are those who have heard the heavenly choirs — allegedly; let’s say allegedly; but let’s appreciate how extensive is the mystical aspect of existence!
Especially during Lent.
“I was so moved when I saw the article concerning ‘angels who sing,” wrote Sharon Wagner, of Dubois, Indiana. “I had an experience of angels singing in the early morning hours of Good Friday last year.
“I was sleeping but woke up to hear many voices in unison. It was a male chorus and singing the Alleluia — but very, very slowly, and with very deep, monotone voices, as if they were sad.
“I knew the song from church, where it was always sung with jubilation and joy — but this was in a different tone, almost as a funeral dirge, but yet with such respect.
“I cannot truly explain it. As I listened, I thought to myself, ‘Why are they singing so slowly?’ and then realized this was the time that Jesus was in prison. Then I ‘heard’ the words, ‘Won’t you spend one hour with me?’
“At that point, I got out of bed and prayed the Rosary. I was and still am deeply moved by this experience.”
“I sat in sheer amazement as I read the story of the person who heard angels sing while lying in bed,” added Greg West of Overland Park, Kansas. “I had the very same experience almost ten years ago, shortly after my conversion back to my Catholic faith, lead by Mother Mary.
“I too experienced the Heavenly Host of angels singing in the night, the most amazing song I had ever heard, Holy Holy Holy, Lord God Almighty — beautiful beyond description. I too had the tingling sensation that spread from my head to my toes.
“Was I asleep or awake? I don’t remember. The last and most powerful part of the experience was as I looked up to the sky in the night I saw a full moon that turned into the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Surely a night I shall never forget!”
We see how the supernatural can inflect itself upon the natural. Our perceptions can stray into other dimensions. Hallucination? Or signs? In Atlanta, the music of the spheres was noted in July of 1989 during the Democratic National Convention — by pro-lifers who went to jail in a “rescue” abortion protest.
“After being processed, I found a cot for some rest and after a while, I started to hear singing,” shared one protestor with us. “My eyes were closed and I was listening — thinking it was the remaining pro-lifers who were in line to be processed.
“I listened to this beautiful choir, singing hymns when suddenly they stopped at one of the lines of the song and sang the same line over and over and over. I was amazed and wondered how the ‘pro-lifers’ all knew to stop at that one line and sing it over and over in unison without skipping a beat. I raised my head from the cot to see what was going on. The singing stopped immediately and I noticed that the dwindling line of pro-lifers were casually talking each other in a relaxed way. They were not singing.“
We thus see which side the angels are on! They do big things. They come at major moments. But they are also there for the smaller chores.
“I used to rise at six a.m. every morning to go walking with two friends,” wrote Maureen Durner of Denton, Maryland. “Going to bed very late one night and being very tired, I didn’t want to oversleep the next morning after hitting the snooze button — so I asked my guardian angel to make sure I woke up in time.
“This particular morning, sure enough, I hit the snooze and fell back to sleep. But a few minutes later I was awakened by a very pleasant male voice singing Dear Angel — a guardian angel song I had learned in grade school! The voice was too vivid to have been a dream. It was a new aspect of my dear angel that I previously didn’t realize but should have known: what a wonderful voice he has!”
“I can’t believe the timeliness of this article,” wrote a viewer named Jan Marie Arbogast of Fort Wayne, Indiana. “Just two Fridays ago, I had a mystical dream, the contents of which I won’t go into detail. I have had them from time to time since a young girl. This particular Friday was a day of fasting and devotion to the Divine Mercy chaplet, so I’ve no doubt that this ‘dream’ was from a Divine source. (I’ve had the other kind too before).
“Other details aside, the ‘music’ came directly from above (the sky, the clouds, in the context of the rest of the dream). This music was unlike anything I had ever heard before here on earth. I distinctly recall the constant refrain of, “sing Noel! Sing Noel!” in a slow, sweet, refined, luscious angelic harmonies that were too rich to be of this earth.
“There were other ‘sounds’ as well to this music — but not seemingly of an earthly origin. I don’t think they were instruments, just heavenly ‘sounds’ that emanated from and with the music. There was much more to this singing, yet this is the best that ‘words can do for me (and I am a music teacher!).”
There is the music of the spheres and it tells us that angels are there and perhaps also serves in some cases as a harbinger, a sign that God is with us, even in difficulty — even in disaster.
“One night several years ago, I was listening to the weather and terrible storms were moving through the area,” wrote Jo Ann Ottis of Matagorda County, Texas. “Before I fell asleep, I asked the Sweet Lord to surround my house with His angels and protect me from the storms.
“I went very deeply asleep. Sometime later, I saw or dreamed a mail of amour very close to me, a breast plate, and heard a few strains of the most beautiful harmonic voices.
“The next instant, a bolt of lighting hit near my house and thunder seemed to explode in my house.
“The storm raged for a few minutes, and quickly moved away. Although tree limbs were down in my neighbors yards, my yard, with many trees, not a limb was down. Instead of fear, I was filled with peace and joy. ”
“I read in a newspaper account out of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, that on the evening on the day before the great flood of May 1889, residents in the town could hear angel choirs singing!” wrote another viewer. “Everyone thought it was coming from the churches, but later they found that it hadn’t coming from any church! On May 31, the dam at South Fork gave way and killed 2,209 people with 967 missing.”
Many are the cases in which angels are heard in churches — even though no one is singing.
“About 29 years ago I was walking into the foyer of our church to make an afternoon visit when I stopped dead in my tracks as this incredible singing came from inside,” reports Helen Arata of Pacifica, California. “The inside doors were shut so I just stood there and pondered who was in church singing. I surmised it must be a visiting choir that was practicing but I was stunned. I had never heard any singing like that before.
“There were no musical instruments; it was voices only and the range was more full than I’ve ever heard — perfectly blended.
“The voices were pure and very clear but I could not understand the words.
“I debated whether I should go in. I didn’t want to disturb the people inside. Finally I decided I had to find out who the ‘choir’ was, although as soon as I opened the door to go inside, the singing stopped. There was only one woman in the church and she was sitting up front quietly praying the Rosary.” We heard the same from a woman whose family was visiting a Marian shrine in Missouri, heard beautiful singing in the church, but entered to see that no one was there — and no car but theirs was in the lot! The same happened to a priest at a shrine in New Jersey.
Angels love churches, They love shrines. They love convents and monasteries.
“I have heard angels singing several times, most notably at funeral and Easter Masses,” says Steve Belt of Illinois. “Being a trained musician, it was easy for me to identify these indescribably ‘perfect’ voices. I think it also has something to do with the intensity of the gathering.”
Noted Zelda Graham of Tempe, Arizona, “I used to sing with a group at Mass each Sunday. There were two men, one played piano, one guitar, two women who sang soprano, and two of us who sang alto.
“On one particular Sunday we were singing a song called Holy is His Name by John Michael Talbot. The words of this song are the words of the Magnificat. Each time we sang the refrain, which was ‘And Holy, Holy Holy is His Name,’ I could hear a soprano voice singing it just behind me.
“It was at a higher pitch than the other two sopranos in the group, the most beautiful voice I had ever heard, clear and melodic.
“I felt a chill all over my body when I heard it. She did not sing during the verses, just the refrain.
“I looked around to see if anyone else was around but there wasn’t.”
“When I was on the pilgrimage in 1992 to Russia with 960 other pilgrims, we went to Red Square for the crowning of Mary,” recalls Cheryl Kellett. “It was raining that day. Some of us got let off our buses at one end of the huge square, so we were not the ones to cross the square as did those on the other side who were waiting to be let through the barricades by the guards.
“When the gates opened they started across the Square toward us. The group began singing. Suddenly, however, it was not them — nor the song they had started singing. Instead there was a most beautiful song coming forth and it was so strong as though from thousands of angels. It left me shaking I was so overcome!”
“I was taking care of my dying son in California, and it was a very emotional time for me,” recalls Mary Woods. “I was in the kitchen peeling potatoes for dinner, when all of a sudden I heard the most beautiful singing. It was the Gloria.
“It was absolutely beautiful! I dropped the knife into the sink, and walked to the back door to see if someone had a record of this song playing (silly thought).
“Then I walked into my son’s bedroom and found him asleep! I was the only one who heard the music, and it was not from this earth, it was heavenly! By the time I returned to the kitchen it stopped, and I wanted to hear more!
“It had ended, and I felt excited yet sad that I could no longer hear the beautiful chorus of the Gloria. This music was truly a gift, and I shall never forget it. I sometimes get very quiet, and listen, that maybe-just-maybe the angels will give me another chorus!”
“As a baby I was given up for adoption and my greatest desire was to find my mother,” wrote Francesca Stavrakas of Melbourne, Australia. “After years of prayer I was granted the grace on the morning of October 5, 1999, while staying in a convent with the nuns in Queensland, Australia.
“I awoke to the chanting of an angelic choir. The singing was so uplifting that instantly I knew that it was the angels and my prayers were to become the reality of my desires.
“Later that day I met my mother and family for the first time and life has been one joy after another…”
3/30/07
originally published as angelicsingingfolo1