How to See Angels: the Legacy of Early Mendicant Spirituality

• Any presence of indigenous cultures in Christian practices was seen as dangerous and corrupting
• Difference between what was accepted and what was not was more often a difference that reflected social context rather than doctrinal truth
• Mendicants saw God as the creator of both the natural and the supernatural- could only create the natural in view of and in relation to the supernatural
• Mendicant-  one who practices mendicancy (the practice of begging, as for alms) and relies chiefly or exclusively on charitable donations to survive
• Importance of angels relationship with humanity in the act of worship is second nature in early evangelisation sources
• In these documents angels appear as perfectly logical inhabitants of the universe
• St Augustine- time itself could not have come into existence without angels-one society of humans and angels
• Nahuatl- a member of any of various peoples of ancient origin ranging from southeastern Mexico to parts of Central America and including the Aztecs.
• Nahuatl writings often associate angels with birds often explicitly tropical birds 
• "Many of the explanations of the creation and nature of angels, and of their fall and consequent emergence of demons, were carefully placed by the Mendicants in the context of explanations about the nature of the native deities"
• Implication that the native deities had to be connected with the fallen angels or devils
• Nahuatl writings- angels are often associated with birds- particularly tropical birds
• Sacramental mind set- supernatural world in which angels lived could become present in time and space
• Angels could not be objective- they could not be experienced unless humans felt themselves to be in communion with them in the act of praise
• Mendicants- only way to see angels was by being with them sharing a community with them
• Angels also a reminder that humans were more than flesh and blood
• Mary the 'Oueen of Angels'- difficult to picture her without the company of angels
• Angels integration of the natural and the supernatural- home in both the visible and the invisible worlds- guided the development of each individual and each community in holiness