Many of us forget, apart from the rosary, the month of October is also dedicated to the holy angels. Some are unaware of this supernatural reality, or relegate it to cute little images of angels who spend eternity sitting comfortably on billowing white clouds strumming on a harp; or childlike angels who swoop around, giggling as they interfere in the lives of humans who want to fall in love, acting as some kind of matchmaker shooting arrows into the hearts of potential suitors. Thankfully this is not reality.
The word “angel” means messenger, and the role of angels has always been an integral part of salvation history. Scripture constantly recalls the active role of the angels from the Garden of Eden to the patriarch Abraham, the protection of the angel for the Israelites as they traveled from Egypt to the Promised Land; the wonderful story of Tobias and the Archangel Raphael; the feast of the Incarnation as announced by the Archangel Gabriel to Our Lady; and in the Acts of the Apostles, an angel led St. Peter to freedom from prison by miraculously removing the chains and opening
the locked gate for him.
Angels come to us from Almighty God with warnings, predictions, correction, counsel, and the sincere desire to be known because the more we understand the angels, the better we are aware of their true presence and their real desire to serve and assist us to reach that final goal of eternity.
It is the belief of the Church that not only are baptized Christians assigned a guardian angel, but that every single human person on earth, whether Christian or not, whether in the state of grace or in the state of sin, remains during their entire life under the care of a guardian angel. In fact, it is tradition that
every diocese, parish, school, city and town has a guardian angel.
What a high value our souls possess in the sight of our Father that he commands the angels to leave their place in heaven to protect us and accompany us everywhere to bear us up in their angelic hands. So from the beginning of your existence, your guardian angel has been concerned about you. He rejoiced with your family at your birth, and he has been at your side as you took your first steps and cared for you with a tender care from any dangers that may have presented themselves.
If we truly love our guardian angel then we cannot help but want to increase our confidence in his powerful intercession on our behalf. This will inspire us to frequently invoke his aid and protection, and to ask his counsel in problems and situations that confront us.
Padre Pio had a great devotion to the angels. He would counsel people that if they could not come to see him, then send to him their guardian angels. Sometime later he remarked if he was not consistently bothered by people asking for his prayers and healing, then their guardian angels were asking on behalf of their charges.
In our devotion to the angels we should also have a devotion to the guardian angels of our spouse, children and family for continued protection, blessings and guidance for their souls.
We should offer our gratitude to our angels by remembering to say thank you to them daily, and offer one of our Masses or holy Communions throughout the year in their honor in thanksgiving for all blessings received. The more we practice gratitude to the angels, the more they will inspire us in good thoughts and counsel so as to better ourselves on so many levels.
Most of us will never see the angels through our senses, but in many ways we can have a greater sense of their real presence. The more we honor them, the more they will bless us.
