John Lyman - The Secret Chapel

Leo felt himself losing control. His body was not responding, and he feared that he was on the verge of collapse. Gabriel turned and looked directly at him with an expression of understanding and kindness no human would ever be able to imitate. He fixed the priest with his unearthly eyes, giving him the strength to go on. Leo could no longer feel his body. He had been transported into another dimension, a dimension filled with joy. He was looking into the eyes of Gabriel, the very angel who had been present with Jesus at the Resurrection.

Leo wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. “The fifth archangel is Raziel , meaning secret of God . He knows all the secrets of the universe and how it operates. The sixth is Uriel , meaning fire of God. This angel illuminates situations and gives prophetic information and warnings to mortal men who are receptive to his messages.”

Leo strained to hear the last of the archangels give his name. “The seventh archangel is Raguel ,” he said to the others, “which means friend of God . His chief role in heaven is to oversee all the other archangels and ensure they work together in harmony.”

Leo stepped back from the opening on the verge of total collapse. In all their lives, these men of God could never have imagined in their wildest dreams that they would ever be blessed enough to be in the presence of an archangel, much less seven of them. Tears of joy streamed from everyone’s eyes as they watched the scene before them.

The cardinal stood steadfast, surrounded by the seven archangels. He then shouted at the demon, forcing it to grow physically smaller. It had become quiet and was cowering in a corner of the chapel.

The cardinal advanced on the demon, the angels surrounding him. “In God’s name, we command you to leave this holy place.” He walked in a circle, spreading holy water and sanctifying the chapel. The winged demon, Agaliarept, recoiled even farther into the corner while the lesser demons shrank from the sight of the angels. The Devil’s general began to shriek, his features contorting in obvious agony in the presence of so many powerful beings from heaven.

Lundahl now prayed to the angels surrounding him for their intervention, calling out their names in the order he had received them and asking for the demons to be cast out from the chapel. The lesser demons in the chapel were becoming transparent, as if they were slowly evaporating before the eyes of the cardinal. The black-robed figures literally floated through the walls, leaving only Satan’s second in command to face the cardinal and the archangels.

The demon paced, flickering in and out of the earthly plane he had entered, swinging his monstrous head from side to side like a primitive beast, weighing his options. The hideous ancient tormentor of humanity summoned all his strength and called forth a burning wind that blew throughout the chapel.

The archangels grew brighter, causing the demon to shriek in apparent agony before he suddenly seemed to gain strength from an unseen source and grow in size again. The monstrous demon advanced once more from his corner, heading toward the cardinal and the archangels. He then lifted up into the air on outstretched red and black leathery wings, taking flight around the chapel, hissing and growling, his eyes changing from red to yellow and then to black before he landed in front of the wall by the altar. Behind the demon, a reddish pattern began to form on the stone of the chapel wall, spreading outward like bloody streams from a wounded river.

The cardinal felt the presence of Satan himself. He began to tremble but stood steadfast, refusing to let the demon see his fear. In an instant, the archangels formed a line between the cardinal and Satan’s hissing and spitting general standing defiantly in front of the bloody apparition spreading across the wall behind him.

The angels seemed to be speaking to someone. They stood in front of the shrieking demon, their golden light emanating around them. Without warning, a brilliant white light filled the chapel, and a feeling of total peace flowed through those witnessing the event. It was as if God himself was present among them.

In an instant, the apparition forming on the wall withered from sight, and Agaliarept once again fled to a corner of the chapel. His eyes were hollow pools of darkness that gave no indication of emotion. He seemed trapped and abandoned as he gave up a final, pathetic howl-becoming nothing more than a misty shadow before finally fading from sight.

The terrible burning wind in the chapel abruptly stopped, and the red mist hanging in the air slowly disappeared. Only the defeated echo of the demon’s final moments could be heard traveling underground through the tunnels. The archangels formed a circle and looked inward at one another, uttering words from an ancient language, while the brilliant white light illuminating the chapel began to fade, leaving the golden auras from the archangels to fill the space around them with an otherworldly glow.

The angelic visitation came to an end as suddenly as it began. All of the angels except for Gabriel slowly began to drift upward through the ceiling of the chapel, where they disappeared in a star-like burst of blue light too bright to look at. Leo shielded his eyes before looking at the ceiling in sad fascination, wishing they were still there, when he noticed Gabriel above him. “I have a message for you, Leo.” Gabriel was speaking to him.

Leo was unable to respond. He could only listen and squint upward into the eyes of the dazzling winged figure of the angel above him. Gabriel spoke again. “He who will heal the world will soon come, but for those who do not believe in Him, existence will be darker before that day arrives.”

Leo had just received a prophetic angelic message, one he knew was meant not just for him, but for the whole world. This was a sacred communication from God, and Leo was humbled that the archangel had entrusted it to him.

His message delivered, Gabriel drifted back toward the front of the chapel, where he touched the stone of the altar and gently caressed the cross on the wall with his glowing hand before looking upward and slowly disappearing from sight. All the archangels were gone. The sweet smell of roses was all that was left to remind those present of what had just occurred. They had blessed and sanctified the chapel, thus keeping the Devil’s Bible forever beyond his reach. Leo knew in his heart that, even though he could not see them, the angels would always be close-by and that he could still talk to them in his prayers.

Cardinal Lundahl knelt down and retrieved the Devil’s Bible from the floor, holding it at arm’s length like a venomous snake that could strike him at any moment. He glanced back at Leo and Morelli, and with a grim look of determination, he turned to face the altar and began walking forward with the book. The cardinal walked slowly, his scarlet robes brushing the still-warm stone floor of the ancient chapel. When he had reached the end of the room, he gingerly placed the book on the altar below the carved cross on the wall and backed away.

The smell of rotting flesh again filled the room as the book smoldered and then erupted in flames. Blue, yellow, and red fire burned brightly on the altar until only ashes remained. For a brief moment, Leo saw the golden sword of Saint Michael hanging in the air before it slowly faded from sight and the smell of roses once again dominated the chapel.

They had all just seen a miracle. Even if no one ever believed them, everyone present knew that what they had just witnessed was evidence of God’s presence in the world. What they had seen with their own eyes would remain in their hearts and affect the rest of their lives forever.