Cause of Our Joy l Katie Faley

 In the Church we tend to forget guardian angels frequently. Except for when we’re little kids and we’re told that we have a constant friend watching out for us in our guardian angel, we really don’t hear too much about them.

Since angels don’t have physical, earthly bodies like we do, we can kind of come to think of them like our imaginary friend as a child that we just forget about or don’t need when we’re older.

Jesus said to his disciples in the Gospel of Matthew, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”

We’re assured that every single human has been “assigned” an angel to protect, pray, accompany, and guide each of us closer to God.

Our guardian angels are our personal connection to the face of God. While we’re here on earth, our guardian angels are in heaven gazing at the face of God.

The Catechism even tells us that these guardian angels are ours for our entire life — until death when we’ll get to meet our guardian angel and gaze at the face of God together. I’m sure we’ll also get to find out all of the things that our guardian angels protected us from throughout our lives.

KNOWING THEY’RE THERE

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve tried to remember that my guardian angel is there.

Several years ago, one of my friends told me she had a habit of falling asleep while praying the rosary. She wanted to pray the rosary. She wanted to stay awake. But, no matter how hard she tried, she fell asleep every time. She said she eventually decided to ask her guardian angel to finish praying the rosary for her when she inevitably fell asleep before she was done praying.

It seems so simple, but I thought that suggestion was revolutionary. Why shouldn’t we ask our guardian angels to finish our prayers for us when we fall asleep mid-prayer? They’re there to pray for us and be our “partner in crime.” They’re the ones that exist in heaven on our behalf.

Our angels are ours and ours alone. We don’t control them, of course. But, they’re there to be that constant connection to our Creator.

CLOSER THAN WE THINK

One of the biggest misconceptions I’ve heard from people is that angels are like fairies or mythical creatures granting wishes and flying around in the shadows working magic. Angels are real, but they are created by God to serve Him and to help us on earth.

Angel comes from the Latin word, angelus, which means messenger. God created angels to be sort of a holy phone line between heaven and earth. Just like we can pick up the phone and call a friend, talk, and catch up, we can communicate more directly with God through our guardian angel.

Padre Pio — Capuchin friar, mystic, and saint — was granted the grace to see not only his own guardian angel but also the guardian angels of others. These angels, as messengers from heaven, brought things to Padre Pio’s attention that he could then pray specifically for that person. Because of that, I frequently ask other people’s guardian angels to pray for them. And I trust that their angels hear those prayers and communicate those petitions to God.

Padre Pio even asked his guardian angel to talk or pray with another person’s guardian angel. There’s no reason to believe that angels don’t talk to each other.

I have heard many stories of people having encounters with helpful strangers. In retelling the story, they call these strangers angels. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to believe that our guardian angels send certain people into our lives at certain times. Perhaps, like Padre Pio, our guardian angels conspired with someone else’s guardian angel to send that person into our lives to help at just the right time. Even though we can’t see them, they’re closer than we think.

One of the easiest ways to remind ourselves of our guardian angels is to pray the Guardian Angel Prayer (above) each day. Recognizing their presence in our lives can help us to foster a deeper relationship with our angel and, ultimately, God.

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KATIE FALEY is a member of St. Mark Parish in Peoria and a writing coordinator for OSF HealthCare. She has a master’s degree in theology and theological studies from the University of Notre Dame. Write to her at katiefaleywriter@gmail.com.