Most Catholic adults can recall the rhyming Guardian Angel prayer they learned as children. Recited daily, the prayer reminds children of their special angel, a gift of God’s love, who lights, guards, rules, and guides them.
As an adult, I found another Guardian Angel prayer in Fr. Lawrence Lovasik’s booklet called a “Treasure of Prayers”. The prayer taught me to think of my angel as “my most devoted friend, to whom God has entrusted the care of my immortal soul.” I learned that guardian angels offer “loving encouragement to practice virtue,” and inspire humans to share in their “burning zeal” to serve God. The prayer reminded me that I have dignity as a child of God.
Perhaps the most important lesson I learned from the latter Guardian Angel prayer is that people do not outgrow their guardian angels. The angel who watches over an infant’s cradle takes on a lifelong charge. Throughout life, angels are ever ready to guide the lost and protect the vulnerable. Beyond the ancient accounts of angels who stayed Abraham’s hand lest he harm Isaac, and who told Joseph to take Mary and the infant Jesus to safety in Egypt, angels stand ready today to assist in people’s most desperate dilemmas.
A Brief Catechesis on Angels
Angels are pure spirits, without physical bodies, who serve and glorify God. Angels have free will and intellect, and are holier and more powerful than humans. In fact, angels are on a mission from God to help people grow more holy and to protect them from evil in its many forms.
Angels and humans are two separate kinds of beings. The human soul does not become an angel after death. Rather, human souls in heaven live in the company of the angels. Further, people who help others are not angels in disguise. They may be inspired by angels to do good and even heroic works, but humans are not angels.
As pure spirits, angels can be simultaneously interceding with God for someone, and encouraging at the person’s very side on earth. This is why artists draw wings on angels. The detail signifies that angels are not stuck in the spatial, earthly realm, but can fly to heaven in an instant.
Since they have no body, angels have no biological gender. They do not reproduce, hence have no need of sexuality. Some angels have male names, but this does not prove masculine gender. More likely, in the culture in which Gabriel appeared, a male would have made important announcements. Similarly, the male name befits the strength of Michael the Archangel. In his treatises on angels, theologian Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange refers to angels with the pronoun “it”.
The Guardian Angels
Doctrine on guardian angels has existed throughout Church history. The Catechism quotes Saint Basil in the 4th century: “Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life” (CCC 336). Tradition holds that dioceses, parishes, formal groups, and even countries have guardian angels committed to them.
A theological support for the doctrine of guardian angels is that God has higher species rule lower ones. Adam was to subdue the earth; angels have the charge to govern men. Garrigou-Lagrange writes that guardian angels help men intellectually “by adapting truths to our understanding, by representing truths by likenesses of sensible things, by suggesting good thoughts, and they excite the will to good by admonition and persuasion” (XXXV, 113). They also offer our good works and sacrifices to God, ward off evil, and assist us at the hour of death. Finally, Garrigou-Lagrange says that at the end of our journey, our guardian angel will no longer govern us, but will rule with us (XXXV, 113).
The more open people are to receiving their angel’s help, the more help they are able to receive. Saint Francis de Sales writes, “Familiarize yourself with the thought of the holy angels,” and advises people to pray to the guardian angels of friends with whom they interact (de Sales, 97). Francis reasons that since inspiration to holiness often comes from one’s guardian angel, people should share their aspirations with their angels.
Angels Throughout Salvation History
Church teaching on angels originates with Scripture. Angels are part of the “array” or “host” of heaven mentioned in Genesis 2. Angels prophesy the birth of Isaac, save Lot and his family, and lead Peter past the prison guards to freedom (Gen 18-19, Acts 12:3-19). Jesus warned that the angels of little ones “always behold the face of God in heaven” (Mt 18:10).
Psalm 91 offers comforting assurance: “No evil shall befall you, nor shall affliction come near your tent, for to his angels he has given command about you, that they guard you in all your ways. Upon their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.”
If angels do not have bodies, one may wonder how it is that they appeared to humans in the Old and New Testaments. Saint Augustine theorizes that angels take on created materials to fulfill their mission. Augustine believed that some Biblical theophanies were actually examples of angels delivering heavenly messages to humans (Augustine III, 25). For example, the three men who appear to Abraham in Genesis 18 and 19, one of whom Abraham calls, “Lord,” were likely three angels, each representing one Person of the Trinity.
Even our Savior received the consolation of angels. After the temptation in the desert, angels came and ministered to Jesus (Mt 4:11). It is especially touching to reflect that in the garden of Gethsemane, “To strengthen him an angel from heaven appeared to him” (Luke 22:43).
Angels in the 21st Century
Angels continue their mission on earth today. They work zealously to help humans fulfill God’s will in everyday works of charity and justice, as well as in fighting temptations to serious wrongs.
The temptations that have always plagued men continue to threaten our salvation. Evil abounds in seemingly new ways and endangers physical safety and spiritual welfare. God sends angels to light the darkness, to guide the confused, to guard the helpless.
A striking example is September 11, 2001. One can only imagine the assistance of angels on that tragic day. Some people lived because of heroes, strengthened by their angels. Others died and were carried by angels to comfort in heaven. Evil did its horrid task; God’s angels mitigated, inspiring the charity which survivors showed to their heartbroken fellows.
In a troubled world, millions are displaced by violence and greed. Migrants endure cruel hardship to travel to a new home with no guarantee of security. Vulnerable to poverty, physical danger, and forms of slavery like human trafficking, they need their angels’ protection and guidance. Those who live in comfort can ask their angels for ways to help those who show up on their shores, helpless and homeless.
Hardened hearts threaten the vulnerable unborn and elderly. Pro-life organizations can pray to the guardian angels of mothers in crisis and doctors in denial, for protection of the unborn, respect for the frail elderly, and compassionate healing for those wounded by abortion.
The 20th century sexual revolution leaves a society sorely in need of guardian angels, as it conflicts with teachings in Humanae Vitae and John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. Morally objectionable practices have surpassed artificial contraception and casual attitudes toward sex. One example of the culture’s troubling effects is the baffling prevalence of rapid onset gender dysphoria. Young people especially suffer from this contagious phenomenon. This may be a special case for guardian angels. People with gender dysphoria may feel an affinity for their genderless guardian angel, and may be intrigued enough by this concept to pray to their angel. This kind of prayer can bring comfort and greater understanding of God’s love and his will.
God sends his angels to aid us in the moral challenges of today’s social climate. In the divine plan for humanity, the complementarity of the sexes models the love of Christ and his Church. Angels stand in awe of the Creator’s design, and long to move human hearts in harmony with it. Parents, grandparents, and spiritual directors can pray for young people to be open to their angels’ influence.
Far from being only a charming childhood image or an archaic, pious figure, a guardian angel is a devoted and powerful friend throughout life and across cultures. May we recognize this gift from our loving God, and yield to the encouragement of our good angels.
Works Cited
Augustine. The Trinity. Translated by Edmund Hill, New City Press, 2019.
De Sales, Francis. Introduction to the Devout Life. TAN Books, 2013.
Garrigou-Lagrange, Reginald. The Trinity and God the Creator. EWTN. 2020. www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/trinity-and-god-the-creator-10197
United States Catholic Conference, Inc. Catechism of the Catholic Church. Editio Typica. New York: Doubleday, 1995. Print.
2 thoughts on “Guardian Angels in the 21st Century”
Thank you for your article. It is refreshing to remember our guardian angels who never forget or leave us.
Richard,
Thank you for your kind words. And thanks for reading the article!