We found out this week that we have a new Guardian Angel living at our house. This Blessed Creature may only live with us a few more days, a couple of more months or perhaps 18 years, but we welcome this Guardian Dear sent to us by God to watch over and protect our new blessing.
I wrote that on this blog back in 2004 when I discovered that I was pregnant again two years after a devastating stillbirth. That Guardian Angel is still here with my family protecting and guiding our little daughter Rosie!
and now we also have a couple of other guardian angels who protect our youngest members.
Today is the day to remind our children and ourselves to think of these noble creatures of God and thank them for all of their prayers and guidance over our lifetimes. So many times I can look back at pivotal moments in my life where I sensed a beckoning? a feeling? a thought that I didn’t think originated from within my own mind. Perhaps those were the times my guardian angel was speaking to me.
There was one time in my life when I think I heard my guardian angel’s audible voice, but it was only for an instant. I was pregnant with Raphael but I had an uneasy feeling and I wondered to myself why it was that I had never had any miscarriages or problems in pregnancy. I wondered if my baby was going to make it. (Which was really an odd thing to think since I had never had any problems with any of my pregnancies.) And as I wondered if that baby would live or not I heard “this one won’t, but the next one will.”
One of Mr. Pete’s friends had such an experience once too, when he was at a clear intersection and for a brief second he just knew that he should not cross. This turned out to be a life-saving decision for in the next second a huge truck rolled through the stop sign and would have hit our friend and Mr. Pete. And oh how different life would have been for many people if that had happened.
My sister hears her angel quite often. She used to pray for the souls of two of our classmates who died in a traffic accident. She did that for years, and years until one day at mass when they got to the part where you pray for the dearly departed , she heard something like, “You can stop now.” She felt at peace about it – as if that was heaven? her angel? their angels? letting her know that they were in heaven now.
I often wonder about what happens to our Guardian Angels when we die. Do they stay with us? do they get reassigned? I know when Raphael was buried the deacon commended an angel to guard his grave site. I often think about that when I go to the cemetery. I think about all of the angels who are commended to watch over all of those baby graves and I get the sensation that I am in a very holy place, surrounded by angels and saints.
Padre Pio once wrote about the guardian angels:
Oh! For goodness’ sake, don’t forget this invisible companion, ever present, ever disposed to listen to us and even more ready to console us. Oh, wonderful intimacy! Oh, blessed companionship! If only we could understand it! Keep him always before your mind’s eye. Remember this angel’s presence often, thank him, pray to him, always keep up a good relationship. Open yourself up to him and confide your suffering to him.Be always afraid of offending the purity of his gaze. Know this, and keep it well present in your mind. He is easily offended, very sensitive. Turn to him in moments of supreme anguish and you will experience his beneficent help.
I wonder too about the Guardian Angels who have guarded their person for a long time. Did my mother meet her Guardian Angel face-to-face after 81 years on earth? Did my great uncle who passed away at 100 years of age receive a fond greeting from his angel?
After a somewhat secularized Catholic education in the post Vatican II era, I did not have any sense of the mystical parts of my Catholic Faith. But now as an older adult, I am fascinated with them and relish them. Angels, of course, are a big part of that. So today I will try to keep that sense of miracle of our guardian angels alive for my children.
Follow Elena LaVictoire’s board Angels on Pinterest.
The Divine office today has a few biblical examples of angels. For example Acts 12:7
Suddenly an angel of the Lord stood nearby and light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him. “Hurry, get up!” he said. With that, the chains dropped from Peter’s wrists.
And Revelation 8:3-4
An angel came in holding a censer of gold. He took his place at the altar of incense and was given large amounts of incense to deposit on the altar of gold in front of the throne, together with the prayers of all God’s holy ones. From the angel’s hand the smoke of the incense went up before God, and with it the prayers of God’s people.
More on the Season of Angels and angelic feasts – here!
Angel links on delicious.
Angels around my home:
