Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels

“I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared” (Ex. 23:20). God, who promised to send his people a guiding angel, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. As He loved and cared for His chosen people, he loves and cares for us. Sadly, we have become so sophisticated that we have stopped believing in a spirit world surrounding us. Because we have stopped believing that there is a God who loves us and cares for us, we have become alienated from one another and ourselves. We seem to have forgotten that we have been purchased for a tremendous price, the Blood of His Beloved Son. “The angel is the daily door toward transcendence, to the encounter with the Father” (Pope Francis).

 God is a promise keeper who has bound himself to the human race by an unbreakable bond. “God without man is still God, but man without God is nothing” (Faithpixel). Salvation is a work of God being accomplished through us. Trying to run the race of life without God’s grace will only drain us dry. St. Basil the Great wrote: “Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.” God has entrusted us to the care of a guardian angel to guide us throughout our pilgrimage to our heavenly homeland. Because we are nothing without God, we need to surrender to Him and humbly accept all the help he sends us. God is our refuge and strength. “We must unite with the holy angels. We must form a great, powerful family given the times ahead” (Pius XII). “May the angels inspire in the nations and in our leaders plans of peace” (Paul VI).

Angel of God, my guardian dear,
To whom God’s love commits me here,
Ever this day [or night], be at my side,
To light and guard, to rule and guide.
Amen.