“With all the warriors of the heavenly army we sing a hymn of glory to the Lord” (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium 8), and “it is especially in the sacred liturgy that our union with the heavenly Church is best realized” (Lumen Gentium 50). This communion evidently also embraces the angels, for they, too, have Christ as their Head and are members of his Mystical Body (cf. The Consecration to the angels aims at consolidating and cultivating this communion. In the Consecration prayer, we turn to the holy angels in order to make a covenant with them. In this covenant-relationship, we primarily wish to venerate God in union with the holy angels. Additionally, we also wish to honor the angels, giving them thanks and imploring their help for us and for the Church. Given that angels and men are both ‘fellow servants’ of the Lord (cf. Rev 19:10 22:9), we, too, in the measure of our modest forces, wish to contribute in collaboration with them to the coming of the Kingdom of God. Since this mission is common both to angels and men, devotion to the holy angels, by its very nature, gives impetus to the common praise of God and to a joint effort for the salvation of souls. Hence, in the history of the Church, there have been numerous confraternities in honor of the angels. Even though the members may be physically separated from one another, they live in the awareness of being united in spirit, for the Consecration is a covenant, and a covenant builds community. Consequently, we, too, wish to live this covenant in the community of the Work of the Holy Angels, giving one another support, help, and encouragement. The Consecration to the holy angels involves a serious obligation.
Therefore, it should only be made after an adequate preparation, and normally, it is combined with the admission into an ecclesiastically recognized association of the Opus Angelorum, as for example, into the Confraternity of the Guardian Angels. The Consecration to the holy angels has a twofold structure. In the first part, the spirituality of the OA is laid down as the governing principle for the covenant with the angels and our strivings. Only those who are determined to pursue this lofty goal should consider making this Consecration.
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