THE GUARDIAN ANGELS (Memoria: 2 October)

Prayer: Lord God of hosts, in Your all-wise providence You send angels to guard and protect us. Surround us with their watchful care on earth, and give us the joy of their company for ever in heaven. We make our prayer in the most precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

Jakarta, 2 October 2021

A Christian Pilgrim

 

DAILY PRAYER TO GUARDIAN ANGEL

Jakarta, 2 October 2020

A Christian Pilgrim

 

THE GUARDIAN ANGELS – Memoria: 2 October

“He [God] has given His angels charge of you, to guard you in all your ways.” What reverence this saying should instill in you, what devotion it should stir up, what trust it should inspire. Reverence for their presence, devotion on account of their loving care, trust in their protection. They are present, and present to you, not merely accompanying you but watching over you. They are  present in order to protect you, in order to help you. Nevertheless, tough it is He who gave them this charge, we should not be ungrateful to them, for they obey with such love and help us in such great need.” (taken from a sermon of St. Bernard)

Prayer: Lord God of hosts, in Your all-wise providence You send angels to guard and protect us. Surround us with their watchful care on earth, and give us the joy of their company for ever in heaven. We pray this in the most precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Jakarta, 2 October 2019

A Christian Pilgrim

 

THE GUARDIAN ANGELS – MEMORIA: 2 October

The guardian angels are the protective presence of God around us.

Often angels are pictured as weak, comic, fragile spirits.

The biblical view of angels is much more awesome. They remind us of God’s benign and protective presence everywhere.

Prayer: Lord God of hosts, in Your all-wise providence You send angels to guard and protect us. Surround us with their watchful care on earth, and give us the joy of their company for ever in heaven. We pray this in the most precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Jakarta, 2 October 2018

A Christian Pilgrim

 

THE GUARDIAN ANGELS – Memoria: 2 October

“He has given His angels charge of you, to guard you in all your ways,” Let the Lord be thanked for His steadfast love, for His wonderful works to the sons of men. Let the nations praise Him and say that Lord has done great things for them. Lord, what is man that You are so much of Him, that You set Your mind upon him, You are solicitous for him, You care for him. Indeed You send Your only Son to him, You infuse Your Spirit, You promise him the sight of Your countenance. And that no being in heaven may rest form the work of caring for us, You send those blessed spirits to minister to us, You assign them to watch over us, You bid them be our guardians. (From the sermons of St. Bernard)

Prayer: Lord God of hosts, in Your all-wise providence You send angels to guard and protect us. Surround us with their watchful care on earth, and give us the joy of their company for ever in heaven. We make our prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Jakarta, 2 October 2017

A Christian Pilgrim 

 

THE GUARDIAN ANGELS – MEMORIA: 2 OCTOBER

Prayer: Lord God of hosts, in Your all-wise providence You send angels to guard and protect us. Surround us with their watchful care on earth, and give us the joy of their company for ever in heaven. We make our prayer in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Jakarta, 2 October 2015

A Christian Pilgrim

 

MEMORIAL OF THE GUARDIAN ANGELS – 2 OCTOBER

Jakarta, 2 October 2014

A Christian Pilgrim

 

GUARDIAN ANGELS

GUARDIAN ANGELS 

Today, 2^nd of October, we honor our guardian angels, those spiritual beings privileged to gaze upon God and worship Him even as they watch over us and safeguard us. 

Vatican Council II recognizes that non-Christian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, contain parts of the truth, reflections of the Word. “The Catholic Church rejects nothing which is true and holy in these religions. She looks with sincere respect upon those ways of conduct and of life, those rules and teachings which, though differing in many particulars from what she holds and sets forth, nevertheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men (Declaration Nostra Aetate, on relations with non-Christian religions, no. 2). These rays of truth which enlighten all men normally, according to St. Thomas, are spread with the help of angels. 

Thus the teaching of the Church on the protection of angels which all men enjoy, without exception, throws light on the doctrine of “sufficient grace” – the doctrine that everyone is granted grace enough to be saved: the lights the angels bring are a concrete expression of sufficient grace. St. Thomas Aquinas state in De Veritate: “it is proper to divine Providence to provide everyone with what is necessary for salvation, provided that the person does not raise obstacles. It could happen that someone grows up in the wild, in the middle of wolves; if he follows the line of conduct his natural reason dictates, seeking good and avoiding evil, it is certain that God will reveal to him, by inward inspiration, everything that it is necessary to believe, or will direct him to a preacher of the faith, just as He sent Peter in search of Cornelius. Following this teaching, in the case proposed this inward light regarding those things he has to believe normally reaches a person through the intervention of his angel, just as it is by the mystery of angels that someone receives the gift of tongues or of prophecy. “God has not chained His power to the sacraments.” The non-Christian who, though invincibly ignorant of Revelation, still lives an honest and upright life, can be saved outside the confines of the visible Church. 

How do angels go about fulfilling their mission in our daily life? “He will give His angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot” (Ps 91:11-13). 

How do guardian angels intervene in homes, schools, factories, cinemas, parliaments, on the highway, in the air? Can these incorporeal beings actually influence social and professional life, politics, etc? Do they exercise any real, substantial influence in a person’s life? Have they a role to play in the history of mankind? 

St. Thomas Aquinas discovers the answer to these questions by investigating the very nature of the angels. Their knowledge of the natural universe and its laws is incomparably superior to man’s. They hold a mysterious power over the material world; their dominion goes way beyond the limits of science and technology – to the extent that some things the angels do seem to us to be miraculous when in fact they are purely natural. We can see parallels to this in our own experience: people in a tribe in the middle of nowhere, completely cut off from the rest of the world, would think it was a miracle if they saw an aeroplane land or heard a transistor radio. Yet there is nothing miraculous about them: the makers of these machines have an advantage over the tribesmen simply because they know much more about nature and its laws. 

In this connection we might look at an episode in the Acts of the Apostles. After being shipwrecked, St. Paul and his companions land on Malta. A fire is lit. Paul gathers some firewood and throws it on the fire. A viper jumps out and fastens itself on to Paul’s hand. The Apostle shakes the reptile off into the fire and suffers no harm. The natives expect him to swell up or fall down dead. They watch him for a while and when they see that nothing happens to him they change their attitude. “He is god”, they exclaim (Act 28:6). 

The islanders regard this stranger’s immunity as something miraculous. They take him for a god. But it is very possible that the Apostle was protected because his angel acted on the viper – just as one might attribute to angels the quietness of the hungry lions in the pit where Darius had thrown Daniel. “O King”, Daniel said, “My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not hurt me …” (Dan 6:23) 

Note: Taken from Georges Huber, MY ANGEL WILL GO BEFORE YOU – A book about our Guardian Angels, Manila: SINAG-TALA Publishers, Inc., pages 65- 67. 

Jakarta, 2^nd of October 2013 

A Christian Pilgrim