All of which things were disposed, as I have said, not indiscriminately and fortuitously, but by a most appropriate and just decision of God, who arranged them according to deserts, in accordance with His own approval and judgment: so that to one angel the Church of the Ephesians was to be entrusted; to another, that of the Smyrnæans; one angel was to be Peter's, another Paul's; and so on through every one of the little ones that are in the Church, for such and such angels as even daily behold the face of God must be assigned to each one of them; and there must also be some angel that encamps round about them that fear God. All of which things, assuredly, it is to be believed, are not performed by accident or chance, or because they (the angels) were so created, lest on that view the Creator should be accused of partiality; but it is to be believed that they were conferred by God, the just and impartial Ruler of all things, agreeably to the merits and good qualities and mental vigour of each individual spirit. (Book I, Chapter 8, Part 1)

I was first attracted to Origen by a summary of his writings in which I perceived great similarity with my own spiritual understandings.

Instead I have mostly fussed and argued with him.

Except when he has discussed angels. On matters angelic I have smiled indulgently, not necessarily agreeing but, perhaps, wishing it might be so.

I take scripture seriously. Scripture gives a serious role to angels.

It is worth taking Origen seriously and seeing what we might make make of angels as a literary or symbolic or operational expression of God.