Sometimes kids ask the greatest questions. 8-year-old Ava called The Patrick Madrid Show to ask, “Are the angels in heaven part of the Communion of Saints?”

To answer her, Patrick Madrid pointed to St. Thomas Aquinas. “He was one of the greatest teachers in the Catholic faith, maybe the greatest in the history of the Church. And he said that, yes, we should consider the angels members of the Communion of Saints for this reason: the word ‘saint’ means holy one, holy person.”

“The angels are persons—they’re angelic persons, they’re not human beings like we are—they’re pure spirits. But they are persons and they’re holy because they see God face-to-face. So they not only are holy persons but they also share with us the activity of praying for us,” explained Patrick.

Our family and loves ones pray for us on earth, the saints pray for us in heaven, and our guardian angel prays for us, too. Patrick asked Ava is she prays to her guardian angel every day and asks him to help her. She said, “Yes.”

Ava’s sister jumped on the line to ask a follow-up question about angels: “Do the angels get judged on the last day?”

“The answer is no,” said Patrick. “They don’t get judged because they already were judged. When God created the universe, He created all the angels that exist, however many trillions of angels there may be. We don’t know how many there are, but there are many of them. God created them all at once and their original existence was kind of like Adam and Eve in the garden before they committed their sin.”

“The angels had to pass a test. And so God gave them some test, we’re not sure exactly what it was but we think that it was that He showed them that because of the sin of Adam and Eve, that God would become a human being. He would become man in Jesus Christ and die for our sins on the cross. And so God showed the angels this and said you’re going to worship Me as God and Man. Some of the angels said no, I’m not going to do that, because of their pride. So in that moment, about a third of all the angels failed the test and they were cast down,” explained Patrick.

The good angels, having passed the test, immediately were welcomed into the beatific vision with God forever. Therefore, they are not judged on the last day because they have already been judged.

For more faith answers and the occasional questions from our littlest Catholics, tune in to The Patrick Madrid Show weekdays at 8-11am CT only on Relevant Radio^®.

Listen to Ava’s question here: