Jan 27 2009
The Guardian Angels (Part 2)
Excerpt from: “The Spiritual Life. A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology”, [pg. 98] by The Very Reverend Adolphe Tanquerey, S.S., D.D.
“Our Guardian Angel keeps us in constant touch with heaven. To derive full profit from his guardianship we can do no better than direct our thoughts frequently to our Guardian Angel, making him the object of 
our veneration, our confidence and our love. a) We venerate him by hailing him as one of those priveleged beings who ever see the face of God and who are to us the representatives of our Heavenly Father. Therefore, we should do nothing that could displease or sadden our Angel; on the contrary, we must strive to give him proof of our respect by emulating his fidelity and loyalty in God’s service. This is, indeed, the most touching way in which [we] can attest our esteem for him. b) We show him our confidence, by bearing in mind the mighty protection he furnishes us and his unfailing goodness towards us, his God-given charges. Since he is a master in foiling the wiles of the devil, we should invoke him especially when we are assailed by this treacherous foe and in all dangerous occasions in which his foresight and his adroitness will be of great help. We should likewise call for his assistance when determining our vocation, for he better than any other will know the providential designs of God in our regard. Finally, in all important affairs with others it is well to address ourselves to their Guardian Angels that these persons may be well-disposed towards the mission we are about to discharge in their behalf. c) We manifest to our Guardian Angel our love by reflecting that he has ever been and is still our devoted friend, ever ready to render us services the extent and import of which we shall realize only in heaven. By faith, however, we can even now understand, though only imperfectly, something of his good offices toward us, and this suffices to call forth our gratitude and our love. When loneliness weighs heavily upon us, let us remember that we are not alone, that near us hovers a friend, devoted and generous, upon whom we can lean and with whom we can hold familiar converse. Let us bear in mind that [by] honoring our Guardian Angel we honor God Himself whom our Angel represents here below, and let us often unite ourselves to him in order to give greater glory to God.”
“When tempted, invoke your angel. He is more eager to help you than you are to be
helped! Ignore the devil and do not be afraid of him; he trembles and flees at the sight of
your guardian angel. ”
I am glad to see you are blogging again… I guess I had not checked in a while but glad to have found you back!
I have almost consistently thought of my angel as an appointed and thus fairly impersonal holy babysitter, which is not fair to either of us.. I like the idea of loving him right back. And I have felt that I irritated mine one night when I kept calling on him to help me fight lust..there was an inner shout of frustration, “How can I help you if you won’t even try to change your thoughts??” It was such a shockingly real sensation, I very gratefully changed my thoughts right then! And never again had that problem–I turned instead to my angel right away. If that’s too much info, I apologize, but maybe it’s important in this crazy time of a million temptations to say that help is right beside us, even closer than we know.
And whenever I hear of anyone who is lost, particularly a child or a sufferer of Alzheimer’s, I have asked my angel to, in God, have a word with their angel. Many lost have been found, but of course, there are millions of whom we don’t hear at all. But above all, I have new solace today about my little grandson who doesn’t live with us half the time, and so half the time, he is in dangers we can’t even see. Well, he has an Accompanier, and always will, at all times– my angel and his can both communicate and intercede..
Aeternus, thanks! Great to hear from you too, and thanks for that quote from St. John Bosco.
Carol, I find it very sad indeed that we have this whole realm of mystical, angelic beings here to help us, and most Catholics are completely ignoring them instead of using all this beautiful help that God has provided. I think this is exactly what Satan wants – for the angels to have disappeared out of our awareness, out of our soul’s intellect. Bringing them back into our awareness is not difficult; at first it might be a practice, like any other spiritual practice, requiring conscious effort, but more and more easily the communication becomes naturally established. The story you tell seems to fit right in with the first line of the St. John Bosco quote that Aeternus left. You did the invoking right! You freed up your angel to help, because they won’t go against our free will. But like the quote says, sometimes maybe we don’t want to be helped as much as they want to help us! When we’re ready to put a little of our own effort into it, they can really go to work for us!
“Angel of God, my guardian dear
Give me a good boot right in my rear.”
I guess if I hadn’t seen this, I wouldn’t be tempted to say it, but I do recall having a visual thought of a me-shaped entity leaning against a Tree. The only way to liken the entity’s perfect fit to our soul’s shape (or vice versa!) is to mention how the old Dustbuster vacuum cleaner became one with its charger.
C, I’m not too sure that was your angel… Your angel wouldn’t be “you-shaped”, would “he/she/it”? You are “you-shaped”. You old soul, you.
Old soul–gasp! That’s a compliment, isn’t it? lol