Do our Guardian Angels have similar personalities to us?

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I read this in a book about Angels. Our Guardian angels have similar personalities to us. I kind of like this idea. One facet of this idea is that our weakness become strengths. I have trouble wrapping my little mind around this idea. For example, someone who struggles with anger, perhaps that is transformed into righteous anger and zeal? Perhaps, low self esteem is changed into humility?

Any thoughts?
 
Dear JMJ Theresa,

Fascinating topic, thank you for starting it. May I ask what book on angels you’re referring to? I’d be interested in reading it.

As for me, I’ve definitely wondered if my guardian angel shares certain personality traits in common with me, based on things that happen in my life that my guardian angel seems to have had a hand in. 🙂

As for my guardian angel’s helping compensate for my weakness with his strengths, well, maybe there’s a deeper reason why I chose to name my angel Gabriel after the Angel of the Annunciation, than just because I wanted my angel to have an authentic angel name from the Bible.

Gabriel is, when you get down to it, an angel of communication. Once, while driving to a party where I knew I’d be seeing someone I didn’t get along with, I prayed, “Guardian angel, guide my thoughts and guard my tongue. Guardian angel, guard my thoughts and guide my tongue.” And I believe this is exactly what happened at the party. Peace reigned. But if I hadn’t prayed, likely I would have said something I would have regretted.

~~ the phoenix
 
In my religious education, I was told that your guardian angel doesn’t necessarily have a similar personality to your own but it’s a complementary one, to enable them to help you the most.

I tend to think that God designed each guardian angel to be a unique and wonderful individual in its own right, rather than tailor-making them for the men they would for such a short time guide. You don’t tend to hear the theory put forward that each man was created tailor-made to their guardian angel, so why have it the other way round when angels are by far the superior creature? There’s something nice about realising that your angel had to get to know you as a baby so that as you grew older, they would be able to influence you best.

Regarding weaknesses and strengths, since angels are sinless and consequently possess every virtue, they will always counteract our shortfallings.
 
The book is The World and Work of the Holy Angels by Fr. Robert Fox. I was looking for the quote and, strangely, I went right to it. 🙂 It did say that angels have similar or complementary personalities.

Someone just asked me why we perceive angels fighting with swords. Do angels have physical battles or is it just symbolic? How do angels battle? Is it a contest of wills. Mental rays? Is it a battle of Virtue vs. vice? Perhaps God’s grace is just beamed out?

I guess that is why we have the imagery of the sword because it is so hard to conceive how pure spirits would battle.
 
Interesting questions.

You should read St Thomas Aquinas on Angels. He’s the ultimate theologian on the subject.
Did you know that Angels are everywhere, and in one place at the same time? And that they can move to anywhere instantaneously?
Too much for me to fathom.
Be sure to name your guardian Angel and foster a relationship, if you haven’t already.
 
You should get the book called “All about the Angels” by Father Paul O’Sullivan, O.P. (E.D.M.).
 
Does my Guardian Angel have a personality similar to mine?

I hope not. :o
 
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tjmiller:
Does my Guardian Angel have a personality similar to mine?

I hope not. :o
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Aww…come on. God designed your personality, so he must like you!! Don’t put my God down!!! 😛

I’m sure you are just frustrated with spiritual weakness you have. Aren’t we all. I’m sure your angel is helping you with these.

I’m inclined to a lot of silly anxieties. So I know my angel doesn’t have these. I really despise that about myself. However, I know anxiety is not a sin. It may be a gift to me to help me with humility and compassion. No one knows the extraordinary effort it sometimes takes me to do the most banal things–no one but God and, my guardian angel. So maybe my guardian’s personality is very gentle and encouraging. I also have a lot of enthusiasm for ideas and projects (esp. faith formation). I think my angel is very enthusiastic, too.
 
JMJ Theresa:
The book is The World and Work of the Holy Angels by Fr. Robert Fox.
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Thank you, JMJ Theresa.

I’ll have to drop by Amazon.com and see if I can pick up a copy. In 1980, btw, I went on the Fatima Youth Pilgrimage with Fr. Robert J. Fox … so I’m certain in advance that the quality of the book is excellent! 🙂

~~ the phoenix
 
These responses made me wonder what guardian angels do for saints.
Do they sit around being really bored, or do they go off helping the guardian angels of the people that the saints are praying for?

I know that saints are probably spiritually attacked more than most, so they need the angel to help with that, but an image of a bored guardian angel sitting around twiddling his thumbs while the saint was doing really good holy stuff, was the first thing that popped into my head reading this !
 
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timcath:
These responses made me wonder what guardian angels do for saints.
Do they sit around being really bored, or do they go off helping the guardian angels of the people that the saints are praying for?

I know that saints are probably spiritually attacked more than most, so they need the angel to help with that, but an image of a bored guardian angel sitting around twiddling his thumbs while the saint was doing really good holy stuff, was the first thing that popped into my head reading this !
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I guess you mean the saints were attacked spiritually before they became saints, i.e. when they were still alive on earth? They are saints when they go to Heaven and can’t be attacked there.
 
I probably got my tenses mixed. I was thinking about those people on earth now who are the most holy and spiritual, who would become saints in the future, and the guardian angel that is looking over them.
Would there be a hierarchy of guardian angels - ones that get the easy jobs looking after the holy, through to the most experienced hardcore angels that look after the tricky cases ?
Would you have the meek angel looking after the meek, and the tough angel looking after the tough, or the other way around?
 
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timcath:
These responses made me wonder what guardian angels do for saints.
Do they sit around being really bored, or do they go off helping the guardian angels of the people that the saints are praying for?

I know that saints are probably spiritually attacked more than most, so they need the angel to help with that, but an image of a bored guardian angel sitting around twiddling his thumbs while the saint was doing really good holy stuff, was the first thing that popped into my head reading this !
Click to expand...
No angel would ever be bored watching the beauty of Christ’s image being replicated in the person under their watchful care. 🙂

One such Saint was St. Frances of Rome who had regular visions of her guardian angel. As the account of her life tell us, the angel first appeared to her with an appearance a young child and then as she spiritual matured, so did the appearance of the angel take on a mature countenance. How lovely!
 
I’ve found this from the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke to be a particularly effective remedy to the saccharine images of the angels:
Duino Elegies(1922)

Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels’
hierarchies? and even if one of them suddenly
pressed me against his heart, I would perish
in the embrace of his stronger existence.
For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror
which we are barely able to endure and are awed
because it serenely disdains to annihilate us.
Click to expand...
 
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