It's hard to see angels, although I've stared at their pictures for hours. Some people can see them without pictures, and they tell interesting tales. Guardian angels are all female, for instance, which didn't surprise me once I found out. A birth angel, recruited from the younger ranks, attends every baby when it appears, while another angel, older but not grim, helps the dying to leave this world without grief or pain.
You can pray to the angels and they will listen, but the best way to call them, I am told, is to laugh. Angels respond to delight, because that is what they're made of. In fact, when people's minds are clouded by anger or hatred, no angel can reach them.
Not all angels have wing, so the visionaries claim, but those who do can unfurl a span of golden feathers stretching over the entire world. If you had eyes that could look straight into the sun, you would see an overwhelming angel presiding there; a more serene one smiles out from the face of the moon.
Angels spend their entire lives, which are forever, spinning around the Creator's throne, singing His praise. People with keen ears have listened in. The harmonies of the angelic choir are incredibly complex, they say, but the rhythm is simple. "It's mostly march time," one eavesdropper affirmed. For some reason, that fact is almost the best I have learned so far.
After a while it got lonely hearing about angels you couldn't see for yourself. When an angel-watcher heard that, she was shocked. "Not see?" she said. "But you have an angel in you. Everybody does. I can see it right now, and I thought you could, too." "No," I said sadly, and I asked what it looked like. "Did it look like me?"
"Well, yes and no," the angel-watcher mysterious answered. "It all depends on what you think you are. Your angel is a speck of light perched at the very center of your heart. It is smaller than an atom, but just wait. Once you get close to it, your angel will expand. The closer you come, the more it will grow, until finally, in a burst of light, you will see your angel in its true shape, and at that very instant, you will also see yourself."
So now I am looking for my angel all the time. I sit silently, turning my gaze inward. It wasn't long before I caught a glimpse of something. "Is that you, Angel, holding a candle?" One flicker and it was gone. Yet that was enough to set my heart wildly beating. Next time my angel will be waving a lamp, then holding a torch aloft, then lighting a bonfire.
That's what the angel-watcher promised, and now that I have caught sight of glory, I know
enough to believe.
You can pray to the angels and they will listen, but the best way to call them, I am told, is to laugh. Angels respond to delight, because that is what they're made of. In fact, when people's minds are clouded by anger or hatred, no angel can reach them.
Not all angels have wing, so the visionaries claim, but those who do can unfurl a span of golden feathers stretching over the entire world. If you had eyes that could look straight into the sun, you would see an overwhelming angel presiding there; a more serene one smiles out from the face of the moon.
Angels spend their entire lives, which are forever, spinning around the Creator's throne, singing His praise. People with keen ears have listened in. The harmonies of the angelic choir are incredibly complex, they say, but the rhythm is simple. "It's mostly march time," one eavesdropper affirmed. For some reason, that fact is almost the best I have learned so far.
After a while it got lonely hearing about angels you couldn't see for yourself. When an angel-watcher heard that, she was shocked. "Not see?" she said. "But you have an angel in you. Everybody does. I can see it right now, and I thought you could, too." "No," I said sadly, and I asked what it looked like. "Did it look like me?"
"Well, yes and no," the angel-watcher mysterious answered. "It all depends on what you think you are. Your angel is a speck of light perched at the very center of your heart. It is smaller than an atom, but just wait. Once you get close to it, your angel will expand. The closer you come, the more it will grow, until finally, in a burst of light, you will see your angel in its true shape, and at that very instant, you will also see yourself."
So now I am looking for my angel all the time. I sit silently, turning my gaze inward. It wasn't long before I caught a glimpse of something. "Is that you, Angel, holding a candle?" One flicker and it was gone. Yet that was enough to set my heart wildly beating. Next time my angel will be waving a lamp, then holding a torch aloft, then lighting a bonfire.
That's what the angel-watcher promised, and now that I have caught sight of glory, I know
enough to believe.
中文來源：Sophie's Wonderland 蘇菲(舒霏)的奇幻異境 翻譯：Sophie Lin
http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/jw!D5Y5WVGCFR76TZG_k9B4/article?mid=283&prev=295&l=f&fid=5
光之天使
Angel of Light
很難看到天使，雖然我盯著他們的圖像凝望好幾個小時。有些人不需圖像就能看見他們，而且能說出有趣的故事。比方說，守護天使全都是女性，當我發現的時候，這並不讓我訝異。而從較年輕的階層中徵召加入的護生天使，當他出現時，則照料著每個新生嬰兒。另一種天使，較年長、但並不陰森恐怖，則是協助死者毫無悲傷痛苦地離開這世界。
你可以向天使禱告，他們會聆聽，但有人告訴我，召喚他們的最好方式是「笑」。天使對喜樂愉悅予以回應，因為他們正是由此組成。事實上，當人們的頭腦被嗔怒與仇恨籠罩時，天使無法觸及他們。
並非所有的天使都有翅膀－有個靈視者這樣宣稱－但有翅膀的天使能夠開展金色羽翼，擴張延伸到整個世界。若你有雙能夠直視太陽的眼睛，你就會看見不計其數的天使居住其上；而那些從月亮表面上微笑著的，則較為寧靜安詳。
天使們的整輩子，也就是永恆，都圍繞在造物主的寶座前打轉，頌唱著他們的咏嘆讚美。人們若有雙銳利的耳朵就能偷偷聽見。他們說，天使合唱的和聲難以置信地錯綜繁複，然而旋律卻是簡單的。「幾乎像是進行曲節拍。」一位偷聽到天使歌聲的人肯定地說。基於某種理由，這幾乎是到目前為止，我所獲知的事實中最好的。
一陣子之後，聽了許多天使的故事，但卻無法自己親眼看到，令人有些寂寞。當一位天使靈視者聽到這件事時，她頗為震驚。「看不到？」她說，「但在你裡面有一位天使，每個人都有，我現在就能看到它，我以為你同樣也可以。」「不，」我悲傷地說，然後我問她，它看來如何，「它長得像我嗎？」
「嗯，是也不是，」天使靈視者神祕地回答道。「全看你認為自己是什麼樣子。你的天使就是棲息在心靈核心中的一點微光，它比原子還要小，但只要等待，當你接近它，你的天使就會擴展，你靠得愈近，它就擴展得愈大，直到最後，在一陣光線的迸射中，你就會看到你的天使真正的樣貌，那同一瞬間，你也會看到你自己。」
所以，我現在一直尋找著我的天使。我靜默地坐著，轉而向內凝視。不久，我就隱約瞥見了一些事物。「天使，是你嗎？拿著蠟燭？」一陣閃爍，它就消失了。但那已足夠讓我的心狂野地跳動著。下一次，我的天使揮動著油燈，之後是高持著火炬，然後則點亮了營火。
那正是天使靈視者所承諾的，而現在榮光已將我的視線緊緊抓住，我已經了解得夠多去相信她了。
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