Dear faithful of God:
Here at Guardian Angels parish we place ourselves deliberately under the protection of the guardian angels, as all individuals are, but what is unique for us is that we are to honor the guardian angels where most others might neglect this important work.
Who are the guardian angels? Angels are spiritual beings; they are pure intellect and have no physical bodies. They act as intermediaries between God and man. The letter to the Hebrews says of the guardian angels, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them, who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?” (Heb 1:14). This is the function of the guardian angels; they are to lead us, if we wish it, to the Kingdom of Heaven. In the Old Testament we see the guardian angels not only acting as the executors of God’s wrath against the cities of the plain, but they delivered Lot from danger. Moreover, in Exodus 32:34, God says to Moses: “my angel shall go before you” and in Psalm 90:11 we read that God has “given his angels charge over you; to keep you in all thy ways.” Jesus Himself said of the guardian angels, “See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 18: 10). It was a guardian angel that ministered to Christ in the garden of Gethsemane, and a guardian angel who delivered St. Peter from prison. Our guardian angels can act upon our senses and upon our imaginations, but not, however, upon our wills, except by working on our intellect through the senses and the imagination. Finally, guardian angels are not separated from us after death, but remain with us in heaven.
We can come to understand who we are in relationship to God by simply appreciating the reality of the guardian angels. st. Jerome summed it perfectly when he wrote, “how great the dignity of the soul, since each one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard it.” (Comm. in Matt., xviii, lib. II). May the guardian angels keep us from sin that mars the dignity God gave us and imperils our immortal souls.
Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here.
Ever this day be at my side, to light, to guard, to rule, and to guide.
Amen.