Maryland Priest Claims Angel Visited His Church

In Full View Of Congregants

By Michael H. Brown

A devout priest in Maryland reports that on the feast day of Guadalupe an angel appeared during Mass in front of him and about 200 congregants.

The priest, Father Richard Scott, 41, of St. John the Evangelist Church in Clinton, Maryland, in the archdiocese of Washington, tells Spirit Daily that on December 12 he had started the day asking Our Lady of Guadalupe for confirmation pertaining to a special request he had made. Originally from Peru, Father Scott, who says he has a special devotion to the angels ("in the Catholic sense, nothing at all New Age") and recites the litany of angels every day, and conducts healing Masses at a church dedicated to the Archangel Raphael, recounts that at about 6:45 a.m. he was praying to the Virgin. "Blessed Mother, I know you are Our Lady of Guadalupe," he had said. "You know that I love you very much. You are also Queen of Angels. I know I am not worthy, but because of the merits of your Son Jesus and His Divine Mercy, I humbly beseech you to send me St. Raphael to give me a sign that what I have heard in my heart is from your Son." 

That night Father Scott celebrated a Mass in honor of the Guadalupe Virgin at 7:30 p.m. He says that he had gone through the day without much further thought as to his request. "I forgot about it," he says, "but God didn't. 

"I was saying the prayer of the faithful and I had closed my eyes and I opened them and looked up to see the people that I was praying for and I was indirectly praying for my special intentions and also praying for a man with cancer -- and for our bishops that they always be filled with the Holy Spirit and faithful to the Holy Father -- and just as I was saying that all together, I looked up and in the back of the church, I saw this Hispanic woman who works in the parish preparing the little kids at the time of the offertory, bringing the gifts -- they were going to present roses and carnations to the Blessed Mother -- and right next to her I see this young man in his twenties with light brown hair with a big picture, a big painting in a frame, with a radiant face and around his body like an aura. He looked different -- but completely human, nicely dressed, with corduroy pants, a shirt, a sweater, and like a suede jacket.

"He was radiant -- the most penetrating loving eyes. They exuded love, and he had a huge smile, as if he was my best of friends, surprising me. He walked like he was on a mission to fulfill what God wanted him to do. He walked up the aisle reverently but quickly. He was in control. Nothing would stop him. He just came down, but he didn't do it in a way that was pompous. He didn't float. He walked like a normal person, but quickly with this big painting on his right side and it was like there was a light, a spotlight on him, like an aura around his body, even though his body was normal, and throughout the whole thing his eyes were in contact with me. He gave reverence to the Eucharist and to me as a priest. He genuflected near the tabernacle and presented this painting. He laid it against a lectern on the left-hand side. He was not far away from me. He went up two steps and laid it against the lectern and he said to me, 'You have to bless it.' I did say as he was approaching, is there anything I can do to help you. I was shocked. Even as he said, 'You must bless this,' his facial expressions never changed.

"There was complete love and tenderness but he was there on a mission. I couldn't walk up to him. I couldn't  move. Something kept me from moving. I couldn't speak. All I could do was observe and receive. Afterwards he turned around, once again genuflected to the Blessed Sacrament, and then he went again somewhat fast down the aisle, turned around, once again looked at me, raised up his arms to heaven, and said with a smile, as if he was exuberantly happy, 'Amen, alleluia!'"

It is an angel story as there have been many angel stories but with this twist: Father Scott actually saw the mysterious stranger disappear. Most who have angel encounters describe a stranger who then was nowhere to be seen, but the Maryland priest actually saw him vanish. 

"After saying, 'Amen, alleluia,' he put his arms down and I don't know how the wooden doors opened, but as he was going down the steps, before he got outside -- there is another set of glass doors -- I saw him disappear. He went down five or six steps and disappeared. I saw him disappear. He disappeared just before he got to the glass doors. I did not see the glass doors open, and from the altar I can tell when people leave Mass early."

Of course, we leave this all for your discernment. So far we have no reason to doubt it and if true we find it tremendous -- a Christmas gift. It confirmed something major for the priest, who says that painting was a replica of the famous Michelangelo masterpiece, "The Creation," in which God is touching the finger of Adam. He said there was a man in a car who had been out front through Mass waiting to drive a relative, and the man later testified that he saw no one enter or leave. Those attending Mass were equally shocked at the mysterious visitors actions and way of walking.

Father Scott believes the mysterious stranger was the Archangel Raphael. He says the painting was expensively framed in wood with cardboard protectors on the corners. The priest left the painting in the church for four days, waiting to see if anyone would claim it, which no one did. 0