Following on from the previous reflection that we are never ultimately alone, I would like to repeat a story I am sure I have told in the past. Some thirty years ago I was diagnosed with cancer of the thyroid. The surgeon warned me that the operation could reduce my voice to a whisper, which, as a public speaker, felt very threatening; I was filled with fear. Then one night I awoke to hear a voice saying, ‘You are not alone. You have an angel working alongside you.’ And from that moment all fear vanished and I went calmly into the operation, waking to find I still had my voice.
Such angelic experiences are not uncommon. The biologist Rupert Sheldrake, and the theologian Mathew Fox have co-written a book entitled The Physics of Angels, in which they suggest that there are a vast number of what they describe as ‘intelligences’ in the universe which constantly inform us. The traditional portrayal of angels in dazzling white clothes and enormous wings is simply an attempt to describe the speed with which such intimations descend, with a dazzling clarity.
