Saint Francis in Ectasy

Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees. --Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

Saint Francis in ectasy, as envisioned and painted by Caravaggio, c. 1595

Guardian Angel

The delight of the wisdom of angels is to communicate to others what they know. –Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772)

Painting by Matteo Loves, c. 1660

St Michael

O Michael fierce,
Thou king of the angels,
Shield thy people
With the power of thy sword.

Saint Michael, a detail from an altarpiece that shows the ascension of St John the Evangelist by Giovanni del Ponte, c. 1410.

Raphael with Tobias

The angels... regard our safety, undertake our defense, direct our ways, and exercise a constant solicitude that no evil befall us. --John Calvin

This picture of the Archangel Raphael with Tobias was painted by Pietro Perugino, c. 1500. Wikipedia describes the story of their journey.

Inevitability

Gustave Doré (1832-1883) accepted just one commission from the United States, illustrations for Edgar Allen Poe's poem, The Raven. He completed the work just before his death.

Madonna with Child and Two Angels

Divine things must be loved to be known.
--Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

Madonna with Child and Two Angels, Hans Memling, c. 1490

L'Art Céleste

One of the hardest lessons we have to learn in this life, and one that many persons never learn, is to see the divine, the celestial, the pure, in the common, the near at hand -- to see that heaven lies about us here in this world. -- John Burroughs (1837-1921)

Lithograph by Odilon Redon, 1894.

Love in a Mist

And when love speaks, the voice of all the gods
Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.
--Berowne, Act IV, Scene iii
Love's Labour's Lost, Shakespeare

This illustration appeared in Edward Burne-Jones's The Flower Book (1905).