Feast Day of Our Guardian Angels, 2 October

Do you think about your Guardian Angel? Indeed, God have us a special, personalized someone to accompany, guard, guide, and protect us every day of our lives. Pope Francis proposes a practical way to think about them and their role in our lives...

POPE FRANCIS
We all have an angel

Thursday, 2 October 2014, (written by L'Osservatore Romano, 10 October 2014)

We all have an angel who is always beside us, who never abandons us and helps us not to lose our way. And if we know how to be like children we can avoid the temptation of being self-sufficient, which leads to arrogance and even to extreme careerism. During the Mass celebrated at Santa Marta, Pope Francis recalled the definitive role of guardian angels in a Christian’s life.

“According to Church tradition”, the Pope continued, “we all have an angel with us, who guards us, who makes us hear things”. After all, he said, “we have often heard: ‘I should do this this way... this is not good, be careful!”. It is really “the voice of our travel companion”. We can be “certain that he will lead us to the end of our life with his advice”. This is why it is necessary to “hearken to his voice, do not rebel against him”. On the other hand, “rebellion, the desire to be independent, is something that we all have: it is arrogance itself, which our father Adam had in the earthly paradise”. At this point the Pope instructed to each one: “Do not rebel, follow his advice!”.

In truth, the Pope confirmed, “no one walks alone, and none of us can think he is alone: this companion is always there”. Of course, it happens that “when we don’t want to listen to his advice, to hear his voice, we tell him: ‘Go away!’”. But “it’s dangerous to drive away our travel companion, because no man, no woman can advise him/herself: I can give advice to another, but I cannot advise myself”. Indeed, Francis recalled, “it is the Holy Spirit who advises me, it is the angel who advises me” and this is something “we need”.

The Pope urged that this “doctrine on the angels” not be considered “a little imaginative”. It is rather one of “truth”. It is “what Jesus, what God said: ‘I send an angel before you, to guard you, to accompany you on the way, so you will not make a mistake’”.

Francis concluded with a series of questions so that each one can examine his/her own conscience:

“How is my relationship with my guardian angel?
Do I listen to him? Do I bid him good day in the morning? Do I tell him: ‘guard me while I sleep?’ Do I speak with him? Do I ask his advice?
Is he beside me?”
We can answer these questions today, Pope Francis said. Each one of us can do so in order to evaluate “the relationship with this angel that the Lord has sent to guard me and to accompany me on the path, and who always beholds the face of the Father who is in heaven”.

Copyright © Dicastery for Communication