Angels and ministers, spirits of grace

From Oremus Hymnal

Angels and ministers, spirits of grace,
friends of the children, beholding God's face,
moving like thought to us through the beyond,
moulded in beauty, and free from our bond!

Messengers clad in the swiftness of light,
subtle as flame, as creative in might,
helmed with the truth and with charity shod,
wielding the wind of the purpose of God!

Earth's myriad creatures live after their kind,
dumb, in the life of the body confined;
you are pure spirit, but we here below
linked in both orders, are tossed to and fro:

You do God's bidding unshaken and strong,
we are distraught 'twixt the right and the wrong;
yet would we soar as the bird from the mesh,
freed from the weakness and wonder of flesh.

We too shall join you as comrades in grace,
here but a little below you in place;
then, when we climb from our lowness in worth,
we too shall herald good will upon earth.