Today the Church commemorates Guardian Angels. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that "From its beginning until death human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession. 'Behind each believer stands and angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.'"In today's Office of the Readings (prayers said aloud by all religious in the Church) St. Bernard writes: "And so the angels are here; they are at your side, they are with you, present on your behalf. They are here to protect you and to serve you. But even if God has given them this charge, we must nonetheless be grateful to them for the great love with which they obey and come to help us in our great need."
Damned if I know how it is all possible. (But then, I don't really know how gravity is possible.) But I will take my cue from 2000 years of teachings and a saint and so holy, moly comes the realization that we are being somehow, mysteriously shadowed by angels commanded by God to watch over us.
This morning on the subway I closed my eyes, no difficult task at 6:30 am, and imagined them swirling, whirling around us.
My goodness.
I just want to know if I can send them off to swoop in and protect others I love? Holy, moly.
9 comments:
Clare, I'm so grateful that you reminded me, us, of this beautiful date. You know, when I was younger (about the time you and Maureen were around), I had a huge thirst for knowing everything there was to know about angels....especially our Guardian Angels. That passion stayed with me for years...and I read so much on this subject. While we were living in Red Creek I came upon St Thomas Aquinas and never forgot what he taught regarding Guardian Angels: that once a man ( or woman) has died, his angel becomes available to others. Aquinas belived that we could "ask" for the help - intercession - of these angels. He went on to say that many Popes had "scores" of angels protecting them.....because they asked.
And I've never forgotten that - although I don't know if I'd ever passed that belief of Aquinas on to all of you.
Just like you on the subway this morning, I often close my eyes at Mass and try to imagine the altar full of these mysterious creatures - each one a species unto themselves ( did you all know that?!) - ALL of them participating - with us - in the mystery of the Holy Mass.
Oh my. There is so much to learn about these incredible creatures God gave us.
Peter Kreeft does a wonderful job in one of his talks: "Aquinas and the Angels". I recommend it.
Really, thank you so much for this reminder.
I just finished watching Ken Burn's "The War". I hope some of the men who fought and died in that war - and all others - had some knowledge of the angels beside them.
Read your post again and as to your question, can we send our Guardian Angels out to help others? I think Aquinas says "Yes". But here's the interesting thing about that: according to Aquinas - and some saints who were particulary close to their angels - one does better to "ask out loud" , in prayer or otherwise - rather than in thought. Doesn't that seem strange?
But I remember that this vocalizing ( the request) also had something to do with devils being able to "hear" the prayer. And this has to do with the idea that devils cannot read our minds ( which is fascinating when you think of it), but can only suggest things to us and watch to see if we follow through.
My memory fails me a little but I seem to recall one such saint stating that, as a result of the "fall", Guardian Angels were appointed for each of us...and that one of the privilages of these Angels is that they can read our minds.
You know how you hear about the Angel and the Devil fighting for our souls? Well, it's a good thing that our Angels have a definite advantage!
Also - Aquinas and the "experts" (as I came to call them when we lived in Red Creek) say that you can send your Angel to anyone you want (they are made to bilocate)and say one should do this. When Pope John Paul was shot, I immediately did this. It was sooo cool!
So, yes.. all of you and me ...we need to put our Angels to work.
One other thing: your Guardian Angels do not have names...unless you name them.
30 or so years ago I named mine: Gabriel. And it had nothing to do with the Archangel Gabriel. The name came to me one night as I was trying to sleep and I couldn't shake it.
This is all so mind blowing.
I wish that I wasn't at work. I wish that I could just sit and really think.
This was such a nice thing to wake up to this morning. I wanted to comment then, but I had to rush to work. I really thought about this a lot. Then I got to work and someone had forwarded an email to me with a picture of an enormous ice sculpture that was an angel hugging a firefighter. Very coincidental. One of these days I will really have to read up on angels.
Granner always said he didn't believe in cioncidences. For him there was always a spiritual connection.
Wow.
An aside:
How do you make it so that your paragraphs are spaced in your posts?
I tried to space them in may last post ( on Quotes) and darned if they kept running into each other.
It makes for difficult reading...so please help me!
Love this discussion. Peter Kreeft's "Angels (and Demons)" is an eye-opener on the nature of angels and demons. He talks about the gazillion species of angels, and I echo Mom's awe at that one.
And unrelated, Mom, do you use Internet Explorer? If so, try Firefox instead. It's the best browser for formatting and really everything else (you can download it for free).
Mom, do as Mary says and download Firefox and use it as your browser. It fixed all of my blog formatting problems!
Firefox it is....gracias!
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