Oct
2
Guardian Angel . . . You Still There?
October 2, 2007 |
“O Angel of God, my guardian dear, To whom his love commits me here, Ever this day, be at my side, To watch and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.”
If you’re like me, this prayer to our Guardian Angels was one of the first prayers I learned as a little kid. This idea that there was an angel to keep me out of trouble was rather comforting.
As adults, do we . . . should we . . . still believe in angels . . . especially guardian angels? Isn’t it kind of childish to believe?
Today is the feast day of the Guardian Angels . . . so, I guess the Church is telling us that we should still believe in our guardian angel . . . and why not?
Yesterday, I wrote about seeing the world through the eyes of a child . . . maybe, it takes the eyes of a child to see the good work that our guardian angels do. As I said of St. Michael on the feast day of the Archangels, our guardian angels always seem to have our back.
For example . . . that voice that tells you to slow down when you are going too fast . . . that tells you that you better check on your son in the next room just about the time he is climbing up on the dining room table reaching for the chandelier . . . that tells you that you really need to go somewhere and pray . . . that tells you to read over that agreement one more time and you realize you missed something important . . . that tells you to call someone out of the blue and you find out they are going through some hard times.
Our guardian angels are the presence that keeps out of trouble, gets us to make the right choices, and brings us into contact with people that end up being meaningful to us. We may call it coincidence and fate but it may just be God using our guardian angels and the Holy Spirit to get us to live the life we are supposed to lead . . . even despite our best efforts to do otherwise.
I guess I would be a fool not to believe in my guardian angel. When I look back on the circumstances of my life, I realize that the good things in my life have occurred as I listened to the “voice” inside of me and the not so good things have usually occurred as I ignored the “voice”. We all have that voice and it may just be our guardian angel guiding us, comforting us, protecting us, leading us, bringing us back to the right path when we go astray, being a messenger from God just as angels appeared to Mary and St. Joseph.
I guess it is ok to believe in guardian angels . . . it’s not just for our kids.
But, instead of the prayer we teach to our kids . . . maybe we need a more mature one for us adults. I found the following which fits the bill . . .
“Angel of God, whom God has appointed to be my protector against all things evil: be always at my side, and keep me aware of your presence as God’s messenger to me all the days of my life, for my good. Pray for me this day and every day of my life in this world. Amen.”
