Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels

...He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone (Ps. 91:11-12).

In the Book of Tobit, Tobiah leaves his father and mother for a long journey.  As his mother begins to weep, Tobit says to her, "Do not worry! Our son will leave in good health and come back to us in good health.  For a good angel will go with him, his journey will be successful, and he will return in good health" (Tobit 5: 21-22).

I wonder how many of us today still believe in the ministry of angels, how many parents send their children off to school or to college in the company of their guardian angels.  There have been several times in my life when I knew the ministry of my angel, and as I grow older, I find myself relying more and more on the strength, wisdom, and beauty of my guardian angel. 

When I was 5 years old, new to the neighborhood, we lived on a block with only 3 houses.  I was not allowed to cross the street, but I used to sit at the far corner from our house, watching the children playing in the next block.  Ours was a busy street, so I was used to constant traffic and paid it little mind.  One day, as I was sitting on the sidewalk, a red pickup truck passed me and then suddenly braked.  I remember thinking that the driver must have wanted to turn at that corner, but at the same instant, I heard a commanding audible voice just above me and to the right side:  RUN, GAYLE, RUN.

I had never heard about kidnapping, of course, and had no idea of what might happen.  Actually, I was not really afraid at the moment, but the voice that commanded me was so authoritative that I felt compelled to obey.  I got up and started running as fast as I could as the red truck was backing up and pulling into the side street.  Then I heard, "Get her, Joe."  Now I was afraid and ran even faster.  As I approached my house, I knew not to run up on the front porch because they would catch me, so I ran down the driveway to the back door.  As soon as I did that, the men turned and ran back to their truck. 

Screaming and shaking now, I ran inside and wrapped my arms around my mom's legs.  She immediately called the police, but I could tell them nothing except that it was a red truck.  A few days afterwards, I asked my mom whose voice it was that had told me to run.  "That was your guardian angel," she replied.  I knew without a doubt that had the angel not spoken that day, the men would have grabbed me.  To this day, I can still hear that voice in my head.

That was not to be the only time in my life that an angel spoke to me, saving me from evil and destruction.  Now, I rely constantly on the ministry of my angel, in small and great things: I have sent my angel out to find lost pets and return them home; I have asked for help in desperate situations, when I have been lost and without resources, etc. 

We don't need to read much Scripture to discover the ministry of angels throughout the Old and New Testaments.  We just need to read those passages slowly and meditatively until they penetrate our hardened hearts and too-scientific minds and we begin to believe what they say.  A small prayer of thanksgiving to our unseen angels is a good place to begin.