This ancient prayer asks the angels to “encompass us beneath the wings of your immaterial glory.”
Angels are all around us, whether we realize it or not. This includes not only our guardian angels, appointed to us at our birth, but also a multitude of the angelic beings that surround us and fill the heavens and the earth. They are part of God’s creation and ultimately serve him and the world he created.
These angels are here to protect us and lead us to eternal life. We may not always see their activity, but when the miraculous occurs, we sense that they played an important role in whatever happened.
Below is a brief prayer from the Byzantine liturgy that invokes their protection and calls upon them to deliver us from all harm.
Commanders of the heavenly hosts, we who are unworthy beseech you, by your prayers encompass us beneath the wings of your immaterial glory, and faithfully preserve us who fall down and cry to you: “Deliver us from all harm, for you are the commanders of the powers on high!”