Our Holy Guardian Angel

Bless the Lord, all you His angels, you mighty in strength, who do His bidding, obeying His word. (Ps 103:20)

Holy Scripture reveals to us how incomprehensibly great and exalted the holy angels are, whom God created for His glory as well as for the protection and guidance of mankind.

See, I am sending an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. (Ex 23:20)

Is it not God's infinite fatherly goodness that shines upon us in this promise and touches us deeply.

The thought of our dear holy Guardian Angel, devotion to and conscious living with our best friend, belong inseparably to the Catholic faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church assures us:
"From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession. The mystery of the Church's powerful, mysterious help benefits the whole of the Church's life until Christ's return."
And:
"Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life."
It affirms this teaching through a quotation of St. Basil the Great († 379):
Each of the faithful has an angel at his side as protector and shepherd to lead him to life. (CCC 334/336)

A similar quotation is given to us by St. Jerome († 420):
So great is the dignity of the soul that each one has a holy angel assigned to protect it from birth.

We can be sure that the holy Guardian Angels are among the best educators and our surest guides, if only we let them work in us. Therefore St. Paul writes in his Letter to the Hebrews:
Are they not all ministering spirits sent to serve, for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? (Heb 1:14)

Holy Guardian Angel mine, let me be commended to you.
In all needs stand by me and keep me free from sin (this day / this night / on this journey),
I ask you, protect, rule and guide me.
Help me to live rightly and devoutly, that I may reach heaven.
Amen.
(Imprimatur: Augsburg, 19.3.1992, Josef Stimpfle, Bishop)

The holy Guardian Angel accompanies us constantly. He is a crown witness of all our deeds. Above all he prays unceasingly before the throne of God for us, offers the Lord our good deeds, thoughts and desires, and bears witness at the particular judgment at our death to all the signs of love we have shown the Lord in the course of our life.

Thus the holy Guardian Angel journeys with us through the whole of life as adorer, guardian and servant of the God dwelling in us.

• The favoured Mother K. Vogl († 1956) always had great difficulty threading a needle in her old age. Trustingly like a child she would then ask her Guardian Angel:
  Please, help me again! – Each time she thanked him, moved, for the loving service.

For when we are in the state of sanctifying grace, our soul is a temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor 3:16) Wherever God is, He is adored by holy angels. With the greatest interest the holy Guardian Angel also strives to preserve us from sin, because it offends God, who is infinitely holy.

And since the holy angels constantly behold the face of the Heavenly Father (cf. Mt 18:10), they recognise with perfect clarity God''s holy will for the soul He has entrusted to them.

Holy Guardian Angel,
be the constant adorer of the Most Holy Trinity in my soul!
Be the guardian of my life of grace!
Be also the protector of my body.
Amen.

• When we board a vehicle, let us never forget to invite our holy angels! Let us also greet trustingly the holy angels of the driver, fellow passengers and those coming towards us. How many accidents could be prevented thereby.

• Let us also invite our holy angels to work! We will tackle our tasks more joyfully when we know my holy angel is with me!

• How much more gladly would our children learn and be more obedient to parents and teachers if they were taught to think gladly of their Guardian Angel and invite him.

• Let us ask in good time, e.g. before an examination or operation, the holy angels of the doctors and nursing staff involved for their help.

• Let us call on him before important conversations, undertakings or decisions, that he may advise us and connect us with the holy angels of those involved.

• Whenever temptation, fear or distress threatens to assail us, let us call on our holy Guardian Angel.

• Let us thank our faithful companion again and again for all his love and care, and consecrate ourselves to him, that his power may work in us all the more effectively.

But as experience shows it is not always easy to maintain or develop a holy friendship between a human being and a pure spirit, it is very helpful if we learn to put ourselves in the spirit of this good spirit who is so close to us. Thus we learn ever better to understand what spiritual needs, but also what great joys and uniquely beautiful experiences the holy Guardian Angel at our side is allowed to experience.

An exceedingly beneficial aid for this is meditation on his joys and sorrows, as is customary in the Church for our Lord Jesus Christ, for Mary or St. Joseph.

1. It is a joy for the holy angel to behold and adore God the Trinity from the depths of struggling humanity through the office of Guardian Angel and to become a compassionate Good Shepherd with Christ.

2. It is a joy for the holy Guardian Angel to follow Christ in His powerlessness and humiliation and to be called like a disciple into the service of His Church, to invite people to the heavenly wedding.

3. The holy Guardian Angel rejoices to be able to imitate Mary, his Queen, in her maternal love for mankind, by assisting his charge, especially in weakness and danger.

4. The holy Guardian Angel rejoices when he may be a bridge: on the one hand to carry the prayers and good works of his charge like an offering of incense to God, and on the other to bring graces from God to his charge.

5. It is a joy for the holy angel when his charge calls on him, loves him and thanks him, and he can thus help him discover his vocation and lead him to holiness. In doing so the holy Guardian Angel builds, as it were, a throne for his Lord and God in the soul of his charge, with whom he may be united here and in heaven.

6. The holy Guardian Angel rejoices to conquer the kingdom of God together with his charge, by inspiring him with good thoughts, words and deeds and helping him in the fight against sin and in the temptations of the evil enemy. He teaches us the discernment of spirits.

7. And then there is finally the crowning joy of the holy angel when he may bring the soul of his charge to God in heaven after death and bear witness to the good deeds of his charge. He also defends him zealously against the accusations of the evil enemy. If his charge must spend a certain time in purgatory, he may comfort him there and remind people on earth to pray and offer sacrifices for him.

The holy Guardian Angel belongs to the blessed spirits who live in the constant vision of God. (Cf. Mt 18:11) Nevertheless he can be grieved by the sins and wickedness of men.

1. It is a great sacrifice for the holy angel when he leaves the heavenly glory and accompanies his charge out of love for Christ, who emptied Himself for us.
   Let us comfort him by offering the good holy Guardian Angel our genuine friendship!

2. It grieves the holy Guardian Angel when his charge does not call on him in need and difficulty and forgets the help God offers him. Through this this good and powerful friend of souls feels quite abandoned and forgotten by us.

3. It grieves the holy Guardian Angel when his charge turns away from him, wilfully closes himself to his admonitions in conscience and instead follows the manifold temptations of life that ultimately make him unhappy.
   Then the holy angel feels betrayed by us.

4. It is painful for the holy Guardian Angel when his charge does not follow his personal vocation and does not let himself be led by him.
   Then he feels quite powerless and hopes for the prayers and sacrifices of good people for his charge.

5. It grieves the holy Guardian Angel when his charge no longer walks the right path of faith. So often in daily life Christ, his beloved Lord, and His most holy Mother Mary, the Queen of the holy angels, or certain truths of faith are forgotten, overlooked or even ridiculed by us.
   Then the holy Guardian Angel feels disappointed and sidelined by our superficiality and indifference.

6. It is very bad for the dear holy Guardian Angel when his charge turns directly against the faith and thus squanders the treasury of grace of his soul, which he received through the love of Jesus Christ on the Cross, through His word and the sacraments of the Church.
   Then the just and faithful Guardian Angel feels mocked by the adversary, the devil, and can only kneel on the rubble of his charge''s life and beg God for a healing intervention.
   Let us help him in this!

7. And there is yet this terrible sorrow unto death (cf. Mt 26:38) of the holy Guardian Angel of a person who, despite all the interventions of heaven, consciously and wilfully turns away from God even in death.
   Let us comfort him through especially much love for our fellow men and through great devotion to the angels.

Holy Guardian Angel,
you who constantly behold the face of our Father in heaven,
God has entrusted me to you from the beginning of my life.
I thank you from my heart for your loving care.
I commend myself to you and promise you my love and fidelity.

I ask you to protect me against my own weakness and against the attacks of the evil spirits.
Enlighten my mind and my heart to recognise and fulfill the will of God always;
and lead me to union with God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Through the office of Guardian Angel the holy angel experiences, as it were, the completion of his vocation. Like Jesus he may now descend into the depths of this earthly life, where he looks with different eyes on his brother, for whom the Lord shed His blood on the Cross. Full of zeal for his Lord he does everything to make the heart of his charge receptive to God''s love and grace.