Guardian Angels, Oct 2

 Guardian Angels, Oct 2

Exodus 23:20-23 / Matthew 18:1-5, 10

God protects his people; "My angel will guard you."

 Artists have had a field day portraying angels. Fra Angelica, who got his name from painting angels, portrayed them in rainbow-colored wings? Raphael, who was named after an angel, portrayed them as chubby infants. The word angel comes from the Greek angelos, which translates the Hebrew word mal’ak, which means “messengers.” Old Testament writers portrayed angels as "messengers of God.” They also portrayed them as “guardians of people,” as in today’s reading. Jesus seems to reflect this latter view of angels when he says about some children, “I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.” Matthew 18:10

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Have we ever experienced God’s special protective concern for us? “To his angels he has given command about you, that they guard you in all your ways.” Psalm 91:11

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We are very familiar with the material world, the world that is experienced by our senses and comprehended by our knowledge and rationale. Yet as Catholics, we profess in one part of the Creed the existence of the visible and invisible. There is the existence of the invisible, the spiritual world, and it is on this spiritual world that we reflect about angels and guardian angels. 

Generally, angels are understood to be messengers of God. Other roles include the protecting and guiding of human beings and carrying out God's tasks. A guardian angel is an angel assigned to protect and guide a particular person. 

The belief is that guardian angels serve to protect whichever person God assigns them to, and present prayer to God on that person's behalf. We come to this belief from what Jesus said in the gospel that even the children have guardian angels who are always in the presence of God. 

The 1st reading also affirms that God sends His angels to guard us and to bring us to the place that He has prepared for us, i.e. to be with God in heaven eternally. May we always be aware of the existence of the spiritual world and especially our guardian angel who is always by our side. 

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In the 2nd century before Christ, a prophet borrowing the name of Baruch makes Jerusalem speak a message of hope and joy to her scattered children in the Diaspora. God will liberate them from their infidelities. Today we hear the closing words of the book of Job.

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In the gospel, the disciples, and Jesus with them, rejoice that people have been liberated from the power of evil in the name of Jesus. 

Prayer

Let us also remember the traditional Catholic prayer to one's guardian angel: Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God's love commits me here. Ever this day be at my side to light, to guard, to rule and guide. Amen

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Lord, our God and Father, your Son sent out his disciples to set people free from the demons that held them captive. We pray that we too may become liberated, free from the blindness and determinism and fears that obscure our minds and hearts, free from our infidelities and our lack of courage to commit ourselves, free to love and to serve with him who set us free from sin, Jesus Christ, our Lord for ever. Amen