Acta Sanctorum: Guardian Angels (Oct 2)
October 02, 2025
Fr. John Colacino C.PP.S.

October 2
 
Guardian Angels
 

Why write about the angels in a column devoted to saints? Because the Church honors angels as well as saints in the liturgy. The three archangels, Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are given a Mass on September 29, and on October 2 there is a Mass of the Guardian Angels. Granted, we can’t imitate angels as we can imitate saints. Since angels are pure spirits without bodies, we can’t even see them, much less copy their good ways. But they are like human saints in that they live with God, so we can surely ask them to help us just as we ask saints to help us.

The whole subject of angels is staggeringly wonderful. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament tell us of these spirits created by God. There are “Thousands upon thousands” of them, says the Book of Daniel (7:10). They are “countless in number” says the Book of Revelation (5:10). One of their tasks is to praise God (“Bless the Lord, all you his angels,” says Psalm 103). Another is to go on missions assigned them by God. (That is why they are called “angels”. The Greek word angelos means “messenger”.) What missions does God assign them to? A few are related in the Scriptures, like that of the angel who rolled away the stone of Christ’s sepulchre. How many more tasks they have is past imagining. St. Hilary wrote sixteen centuries ago: “You might wish to understand these angels as the eyes or the ears or the hands or the feet of God.” Their role as guardians of human beings is probably the one that interests us most. Psalm 91 says “To His angels he has given command about you, that they guard you in all your ways.” Our Lord, in turn, said of the children gathered before him, “See that you never despise one of these little ones. I assure you, their angels in heaven constantly behold your heavenly father’s face.” (Mt. 18:20). And in the Acts of the Apostles, when St. Peter was miraculously released from jail and came knocking at the door of John Mark’s house, the disciples, sure that their leader was still in prison, said of the person knocking at the door, “It must be his angel.”

Now, the Church has never actually defined as an article of faith that God gives to each human being a guardian angel. It could be defined, certainly, because it is an accepted part of Catholic teaching. The fact that for centuries we have had a Mass in honor of the guardian angels confirms that teaching. It is not in the liturgy alone that Christians have honored the guardian angels. Private devotion to them is very ancient and praiseworthy. One prayer that has come out of this devotion is the Angele Dei. It dates from 12th-century England, and was probably composed by Raymond of Canterbury.

What are you and I doing to acknowledge the presence and aid of our own guardian angel? He certainly deserves our prayers and thanks, considering all he has done to protect us whether we realized it or not. (The theologian Origen even wrote in the third century: “To every man there are two attending angels, one of justice and the other of wickedness.” The angel of justice is our bodyguard.) Even though few people have been permitted to see their guardians (St. Frances of Rome was one), we know the angels exist, as St. Augustine says, through our faith. The least we could do is to say the Angele Dei in our morning or night prayers. Remember its familiar English translation? “Angel of God, my guardian dear,/ To whom His love commits me here;/ Ever this day (or night) be at my side,/ To light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.”  --Father Robert F McNamara

Scripture (Ex. 23:20-23)

Thus says the Lord: “See, I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared. Be attentive to him and heed his voice. Do not rebel against him, for he will not forgive your sin. My authority resides in him. If you heed his voice and carry out all I tell you, I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.

  “My angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites; and I will wipe them out.”

Writings
 

(Year C). According to Sacred Scripture there are twelve works of charity which our guardian Angel does for us.

THE FIRST is to rebuke us for our faults. According to the Book of Judges, chapter 2, verse 1: The Angel of the Lord ascends from Galgala to the place of those weeping and says: “I have lead you forth from the land of Egypt . . . And you have not heard my voice.”

THE SECOND is to absolve us from the bonds of our sins. According to Book of Acts, chapter 12, verse 7: The Angel stood by . . . and the chains fell from his hands; yet this must be understood as disposing this to happen.

THE THIRD is to take away from us those things impeding our progress in goodness, which is signified in the Book of Exodus, chapter 12, verse 12: where the Angel struck the first born of Egypt.

THE FOURTH is to constrain those demons afflicting us, according the Book of Tobias, chapter 12, verse 3: “He chased the demon from my wife”, says Tobias of the Archangel St. Raphael.

THE FIFTH is to teach us, according to the Book of Daniel, chapter 9, verse 22: Now I have entered, to teach you, and so that you might understand.

THE SIXTH is to reveal secrets, for according to the Book of Genesis, chapter 18, verse 17, the three Angels expressed the Mystery of the Trinity and Unity, after which God said: Can I conceal from Abraham what I am about to do?

THE SEVENTH is to console, according to the Book of Tobias, chapter 5, verse 13: Be of a strong spirit, it is nigh, that you are to be cured by God etc..

THE EIGHTH is to comfort us on the way to God, according to Third Book of Kings, chapter 19, verse 7: Rise and eat, for a grand way remains for you.

THE NINTH is to lead us forth on this way and to conduct us back to God, according to the Book of Tobias, chapter 5, verse 15: I shall lead, and I shall lead him back etc..

THE TENTH is to cast down our enemies, according the Book of Isaiah, chapter 37, verse 36: Having entered the Angel of the Lord struck upon the camps of the Assyrians etc..

THE ELEVENTH, to mitigate our temptations; and this is signified in the Book of Genesis, chapter 32, verse 24, where Jacob wrestled with the Angel, and was comforted after the match, having accepted his blessing, the nerve of his femur withered up.

THE TWELFTH is to pray for us and to carry our prayers to God, according the Book of Tobias, chapter 12, verse 12: When you were praying with tears . . . I offered your prayer etc.. All of these are the effects of our guardian Angel’s care of us, on account of which we ought to be submissive and grateful both to God and the Holy Angels. (St. Bonaventure)

Musical Selection (St. Hildegard of Bingen)

O gloriosissimi lux vivens angeli, qui infra divinitatem divinos oculos cum mistica obscuritate omnis creature aspicitis in ardentibus desideriis, unde numquam potestis saciari. O quam gloriosa gaudia illa vestra habet forma, que in vobis est intacta ab omni pravo opere, quod primum ortum est in vestro socio, perdito Angelo qui volare voluit supra intus latens pinnaculum Dei, unde ipse tortuosus dimersus est in ruinam, sed ipsius instrumenta casus consiliando facture digiti Dei instituit.

O living light, O angels glorious! Below divinity, upon the eyes divine you gaze within the darkness mystical of all creation— In yearnings set alight which can never be quenched or satiated: How glorious too are these, the joys your form possesses— that form that in your number remains untouched by every wicked deed that first arose in your companion, that now-lost angel who wished to fly above, within the hidden pinnacle of God— then twisted, tortured, he was plunged into his ruin. But yet, his fall’s devices by cunning plot he laid against the craft of God’s creative finger.
 
Collect
 
O God,
in your mysterious providence
you send your holy angels as our guardians;
graciously hear the prayer we offer,
that we may have their constant protection on earth
and the joy of their company in heaven.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever. Amen. (ICEL; 1998)

 

Archives