Angels, asserts Carmen Parra, are a meaningful and imaginative part of Catholic tradition.

"Angels mediate our contact with Heaven," says the Mexican artist, based in the San Angel neighborhood of Mexico City. She's been painting angels for more than 25 years, and recently completed a chapel for a Catholic elementary school dedicated to Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Rafael.

Other commissions have included the brocade Parra designed for the chasubles worn by Pope John Paul II and the priests at the Canonization Mass for Saint Juan Diego in 2002.

Angels are a constant element in the rich heritage of Mexican artistic religious tradition, Parra recently told The Tidings. Jesus and Mary are often surrounded by angels and the depiction of Heaven is filled with these heavenly spirits.

"Angels are among the most important Christian images allowing communication with mystery. They transmit messages from Heaven to earth," she said in Spanish.

For example, it fell to the Archangel Gabriel to announce to Mary that God had chosen her to bear Jesus in her womb. That encounter between Gabriel and Mary "is one of the most extraordinary mysteries of Catholicism," said Parra.

These days Parra is experimenting with taking her original angel paintings and using digital technology to reproduce them into prints and cards. "With modern techniques one can reach many more people," she said. Her website is www. carmenparra.com.

Parra has visited Los Angeles many times and more recently investigated John Nava's use of digital technology to create The Communion of the Saints tapestries in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

"Tradition, expressed using contemporary techniques, still has something very important to say to people today," she said.

---Ellie Hidalgo