“Our prayers are so dear to God that he has appointed the angels to present them to him as soon as they come forth from our mouths. The angels . . . preside over the prayers of the faithful and offer them daily to God. This is that smoke of the incense, which are the prayers of saints, which St John saw ascending to God from the hands of the angels and which he saw, in another place, represented by golden phials full of sweet odors very acceptable to God.”

—St. Alphonsus Liguori