Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels
The prayer to my guardian angel was probably the first prayer my mom taught me after the Our Father. Every night, before bed, she would lead me in reciting the prayer “Angel of God, my guardian dear…” When you are five years old, few things are as terrifying as a dark room at night. Knowing that God has sent someone to keep an eye on you, not just for a little while, but forever, is a comforting thought. It’s an amazing thought, too–that each person, without exception, is constantly watched over and accompanied by an angel. God’s personal love for us is so great that He sent a person, our angel, down to be with us.
The presence of our angels is something we can easily forget. Or we can trivialize it and make it into a greeting card. But the protection of our angels reminds us that there is a much larger world beyond what we can see, a world with spiritual forces that even the best military could not deal with. Our spiritual experiences, both good and bad, are just a hint of the wider cosmos. When we remember the presence of our angels, we also gain a fresh reminder of each human’s dignity–when I remember that the person annoying me is so loved by God that God sent an angel to always watch him, my view of the person is going to change. The reality of what we celebrate today, our guardian angels, changes how we view things on a cosmic scale as much as a personal one.