Archangel: February 2025 — Noiseless Providence

In his Plain and Parochial Sermons, Cardinal Newman describes the meeting of Mary and Simeon as the quiet, tranquil accomplishment of a great event long designed. Four hundred years before, the Prophet Malachi had consoled the Israelites who mourned the poverty of the newly built second Temple: 'All at once the Lord will visit his temple; that Lord, so longed for, welcome herald of a divine covenant. ' (Mal 3:1) The second Temple edifice, hastily built and plainly adorned; a chastised people, a remanent returning from exile; soon, long years of persecution, treachery, apostasy and suffering which would culminate in the Roman conquest and occupation of their sacred homeland. What had become of the great prophecies and promises of a Messiah who would gather together God’s People in His loving embrace?