Luceat!

At the beginning of my first high school Spanish class with Senora Perez, she made one thing very clear. There was to be no cheating or dishonesty in her classroom, because even if she did not see it, her guardian angel did and would tell her. We all smiled and wondered what an animated tangent on angels had to do with Spanish. First of all, she was not kidding. On several occasions during tests, I watched Senora turn around suddenly and tell a student during a test to bring up their well-concealed cheat sheet. I am not sure how much I learned about Spanish in that class (languages are hard for me), but I did learn a lot about angels.

I have always been intrigued by the fact that we have an invisible being hovering next to us at all times, assigned there by Our Heavenly Father. Frank Peretti books and C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters with images of invisible, but very real, spiritual warfare capture my imagination. Classes told me that each angel is its own species and has a free though now fixed will (they chose once and forever if they would or would not serve God). The idea of millions of unique, spiritual beings who had been given dominion over the material world fascinates me. And since I was young, I have made a habit of asking my angel for protection and help and guidance when I need it during the day.

Your angel was sent to you as a special gift from God. This being loves you and accompanies you everywhere—bowing before Our Lord in the Eucharist, and confused by our distracted presence during the Mass; protecting us from a hundred dangers, spiritual and physical, they we are never aware of; prompting us to do good and avoid evil; and loving us for who we are as they watch us become who we are made to be.

I encourage you to get to know your angel. Ask them and thank them for the favors they are able to bestow on us. Make it a daily habit to pray:

Angel of God, my guardian dear,