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Holy Angels Parish
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When sixty Catholic Wyandotte Native Americans settled in Sandusky in 1749, they joined converts of the Iroquois and Huron tribes for Mass celebrated by itinerant priests on horseback.
Almost a century later, escaping Ireland's potato famine and Germany's political upheaval, Irish and German immigrants arrived in the 1830s and celebrated Mass in private homes. Father Joseph Projectus Machebeul, a missionary, rode horseback in northern Ohio; Sandusky was one of his circuit stops. A railroad connected Sandusky on Lake Erie to the south and during this time, the community became a stop on the Underground Railroad, bringing slaves to free Ohio - a transfer point to Canada.
Father Machebeuf, the pastor in 1840, held services in a large hall lent by a non-Catholic, H.W. Mills, for a congregation of fifty to sixty families. They were Irish and German immigrants with no resources other than their daily wages. Later, Mills donated the present location of five lots, $530, and all the stone and timber for a church. Parishioners hauled stone from nearby quarries and laid the cornerstone for a church in 1841. The church functioned without a roof -- with tent-like coverings used to shelter the congregation -- until 1845 when it was finally completed and dedicated to the Holy Angels. An oxen team traveling through forests and fields before the days of roads pulled the church bell from Toledo in 1846. The first Catholic parish in Sandusky, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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The Holy Angels
Holy Angels celebrates its parish feast day on October 29: The Feast of the Guardian Angels.
The Origin of Angels
The Lord, Himself, gives us some understanding about holy angels. He tells us of the love which causes the angels to rejoice over our salvation and to watch over us on all our paths (Matthew 18:10; Luke 15:10).
God’s love caused Him to give existence to reasoning beings, capable of knowing and loving Him, and participating in his blessedness. The first creation of this love was the bodiless, immaterial spirits who served Him and fellowshipped with Him.
The holy angels, those faithful to God, were strengthened with divine grace and became completely blessed. They are reflections of glory and the radiance of the Holy of Holies encompasses them. Delighting in the ecstasy of the contemplation of eternal beauty, they are possessed of immeasurable love and drink freely from the wellspring of blessedness. They are above all human limitations, limited only by the fact that they are created beings and servants.
The host of heavenly angels is beyond number. Despite their huge number, a perfect and harmonious order exists among the blessed heavenly powers. This order is the very beauty of perfection, wisdom, truth, and love. Traditionally, the bodiless beings are established into nine orders: Angels, Archangels, Powers, Dominions, Principalities, Virtues, Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim. These beings are subject to one another in perfect love and humility.
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Bless the Lord, all you His angels. You who are mighty in strength and do His will, intercede for me at the throne of God. By your unceasing watchfulness, protect me in every danger of soul and body. Obtain for me the grace of final perseverance, so that after this life I may be admitted to your glorious company and with you may sing the praises of God for all eternity. All you holy angels and archangels, thrones and dominations, principalities and powers and virtues of heaven, cherubim and seraphim, and especially you, my dear guardian angel, intercede for me and obtain for me the special favor I now ask: ( mention your intention).
Glory Be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Prayer to your Guardian Angel
Angel of God,
my Guardian dear,
to whom His love
commits me here,
ever this day
be at my side,
to light and guard,
to rule and guide.
Amen.
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