Spiritual Warfare
Are angels really present at the liturgy, and can I trust it when I feel them?
The angels are always at the divine liturgy. We pray it. The priest prays it during the entrance, that there are angels that are entering at the same time. There is a story, I think it's Elder Epiphanios Theodoropoulos, who said that during the liturgy one time he went out to do the great entrance and was doing the prayer that the angels are entering, and he looked and he said that there was like just a stream of angels entering through the royal doors in the middle. Just rows of angels entering in at that time. And he said that he couldn't move and he was frozen in place by this holy vision. And then he felt like a knock on his shoulder and he thought it was the deacon telling him to move into the altar. And when he turned around, he said it was an archangel. And I think that scared him even more, but telling him, go in, you're just standing here gawking. And so he said he went into the altar and sat down in the chair. I think he said he couldn't stand up for the rest of it. There were other priests serving, he was just concelebrating with other priests. He sat down in a chair and couldn't get up again until it was time to receive communion. So are the angels there? Absolutely. Do we feel their presence? We have to be very careful about feelings. The saints didn't talk a lot about feelings. It's kind of foreign to us. We have to be very careful about feelings. Everything should be treated on some level with suspicion. Even when saints appeared to Saint Paisios, he would have them make the sign of the cross. The great martyr Euphemia appeared to him, and he said to her, basically make the sign of the cross and say glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. And only after she did that did he realize it was not a temptation or an illusion from the devil. And then I think he did a prostration to her. But Saint Paisios says that basically, even if we suspect something is being spiritual, it's okay if we reject it, because then we're just being circumspect, we're just being careful. And God will honor that. And if he wants to convey it to us another way, he will. So just be careful with feelings.
Edited from his answer on camera. The clip has the full thing.
From “Live Q and A 12/11/25”
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