Acts 10, 1-4 He saw an angel of God come in to him

Acts 10

(Acts 10, 1-4) He saw an angel of God come in to him

[1] Now in Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Cohort called the Italica, [2] devout and God-fearing along with his whole household, who used to give alms generously to the Jewish people and pray to God constantly. [3] One afternoon about three o'clock, he saw plainly in a vision an angel of God come in to him and say to him, "Cornelius." [4] He looked intently at him and, seized with fear, said, "What is it, sir?" He said to him, "Your prayers and almsgiving have ascended as a memorial offering before God.

(CCC 327) The profession of faith of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) affirms that God "from the beginning of time made at once (simul) out of nothing both orders of creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal, that is, the angelic and the earthly, and then (deinde) the human creature, who as it were shares in both orders, being composed of spirit and body" (Lateran Council IV (1215): DS 800; cf. DS 3002 and Paul VI, CPG § 8). (CCC 351) The angels surround Christ their Lord. They serve him especially in the accomplishment of his saving mission to men. (CCC 352) The Church venerates the angels who help her on her earthly pilgrimage and protect every human being. (CCC 335) In her liturgy, the Church joins with the angels to adore the thrice-holy God. She invokes their assistance in the funeral liturgy's In Paradisum deducant te angeli… ["May the angels lead you into Paradise… "]). Moreover, in the "Cherubic Hymn" of the Byzantine Liturgy, she celebrates the memory of certain angels more particularly (St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, and the guardian angels).