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‘m thinking about angels today because the title of our talk at CSL Kaua`i is “Where are the Angels?” So, where are the angels? In times like these, we surely would like to know that there is something greater, more loving and more powerful than what we see or feel that we are. Where are the angels?

I remember my daughter telling me a story about a time she was in a near car accident. Just moments before the impact, my granddaughter, about three years old at the time, said “Who is that on the window, Mommy?” She was pointing to the windshield. In the next moment a car careered out of control and hit their car. It should have been a devastating accident, but there was very little harm to the car and none to them. Who was that on the windshield? Was it an angel keeping them safe? I don’t know if we will ever know, but what matters is what we believe?

Do you believe in angels? I surely am not writing this to degrade anyone’s belief in angels from other realms or Archangels in whom we might believe. For myself, I don’t believe in heavenly beings with wings and robes that are ever-looking over and after me, but I believe the unseen and the seen are one thing. Life is all around me and Energy is. I remember one Christmas Eve right after my special Aunt Lucile passed away. I felt something, a pure love, that I cannot deny sweep over me while I was preparing Christmas cookies. I couldn’t prove it, but I know it was her. She was my angel in life.

My angels are also my Principles. I do believe that what I declare into manifestation will meet me. My already established premise that guides and guards my day will meet me in my experience of life. Ernest Holmes wrote this: “The Divine Ideas stand back of all human thought, seeking admittance through the doorway of the mind. … If we gaze longingly at joy, it will make its home with us, and we shall enter its portals and be happy. If we seek the Divine in men, we shall find it, and be entertaining angels unawares (unexpectantly).”

Yes, I have met angels on the earthly plane so many times I cannot count them. So many people have met me, guarded me, loved me, and nurtured me. So many people were “angels unawares” in that I wasn’t expecting anything particular. Just recently while trying to maneuver the unknown territory of putting air in the tire of my car at Costco, a man jumped up waving at me to come to him. Step-by-step he explained the process to me and guided me through it. He was an angel unawares in a simple sweet way, seemingly a little way, but truly great in the scope of unconditional love and service.

Ernest Holmes also wrote this when defining Angels: “There are angels ascending and descending with is intuition informing the intellect”

My angels are also those Principles and “Already Established Premises” to which I turn that nurture me and keep my faith in life strong. The intuition that informs my mind…

• There is a power for Good in the Universe and we can use it! 
• The Power behind Spiritual Mind Treatment
• I am the ocean in a drop. There is not a part of me that isn’t God.
• I am consciousness living in this body. I am not my mind. I am not my brain.
• Heaven and Hell are states of mind.
• Unconditional Love is the only Love there is.
• I have everything within me to face every situation and to answer any question – The Mind that maketh all is my mind.
• The Law of Cause and Effect is my constant. As sure as gravity.

Where are the Angels? Angels are all around us. They come in the form of anything or one that supports us. They come in the form of truths that we hold in our hearts that allow us be strong in times of challenge. And then, there are what I would call Angels of Grace. They are those people and experiences that come at just the right time: a word of encouragement, a book that falls off the shelf that had just the right message for you, a smile on a stranger’s face that got you through a difficult day. When we are looking for the good, it most definitely appears. And, if we are looking for and believe in Angels in robes with wings, I’m sure they are here for us, too.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita Andriello-Feren, Author, Teacher and Co-Founding Minister of CSL Kaua`i