Guardian Angel

[lifelessons]

Can anyone give me a link to information about our Guardian Angel and what their role is in our lives. Also if anyone knows any bible passages that mention them . Thanks

 

[Johnny31897]

Hey lifelessons,
Our Guardian Angels are appointed by God to watch over us and help us get to Heaven.

Here are a few Bible passages that mention them:

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.” – Matthew 18:10

“God’s faithfulness is a protecting shield. You shall not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that roams in darkness, nor the plague that ravages at noon. For God commands the angels to guard you in all your ways. With their hands they shall support you, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” – Psalm 91:4-6, 11-12

“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…wipe them out.’” – Exodus 23:20-23

 

[R_C]

Can anyone give me a link to information about our Guardian Angel and what their role is in our lives. Also if anyone knows any bible passages that mention them . Thanks

The Doctor Angelicus, Thomas Aquinas, said some amazing things about angels…I invite you to find out more

Since angels are superior to man, they can enlighten man. They can strengthen the understanding of human beings and make men aware, in some sensible manner, of the truths to be imparted. Thus angels can act upon the human intellect. But angels cannot act directly upon the human will; God alone can do this.

Nevertheless, angels…can exercise an indirect influence on human wills by stirring up images in the human imagination. And angels…can, by their natural power, arouse sentient appetites and passions in the same way, that is, by producing images in the human imagination.

God sends angels to minister to his purposes among bodily creatures. An angel is present where it exercises or applies its powers, and not elsewhere. When God has an angel apply its powers to a creature, the angel is sent to that creature. God is the sender and the first principle of the effect produced by the angel sent; God is also the ultimate goal or final cause of the work so produced. The angel is God’s minister or intelligent instrument; by its being sent it renders ministry to God.

It is fitting that changeable and fallible human beings should be guarded by angels, and thus steadily moved and regulated to good.

St. Jerome, in his commentary on Matthew 8:10, says “The dignity of human souls is great, for each has an angel appointed to guard it.” God’s providence extends, not only to mankind as a whole, but to individual human beings. Each human being has, by God’s loving providence, his own guardian angel.

Each human being, without exception, has a guardian angel as long as he is a wayfarer, that is, during his whole earthly life. In heaven a man will have an angel companion to reign with him, but not a guardian; no guardian is needed when the guarded journey has been successfully completed.

Each human being has his guardian angel from the moment of his birth, and not, as some have taught, only from the moment of baptism.

The guardian angel is a gift of divine providence. He never fails or forsakes his charge. Sometimes, in the workings of providence, a man must suffer trouble; this is not prevented by the guardian angel.

Guardian angels do not grieve over the ills that befall their wards. For all angels uninterruptedly enjoy the beatific vision and are forever filled with joy and happiness. Guardian angels do not will the sin which their wards commit, nor do they directly will the punishment of this sin; they do will the fulfillment of divine justice which requires that a man be allowed to have his way, to commit sin if he so choose, to endure trials and troubles, and to suffer punishment.

All angels are in perfect agreement with the divine will in so far as it is revealed to them. But it may happen that not all angels have the same revelations of the divine will for their several ministries, and thus, among angels, there may arise a conflict, discord, or strife. This explains what is said in Daniel 10:13 about the guardian angel of the Persians resisting “for one and twenty days” the prayer of Daniel offered by the Archangel Gabriel.

…]human intellectual knowledge is ordered by God through the mediation of the angels.

It is clear that our acts of choice have the character of multiplicity, since choices are made of different things, by different people, in different ways. They are also mutable, both because of the instability of the mind, which is not firmly fixed on the ultimate end, and also because of the fluctuating character of the things which provide our circumstantial environment. That they are defectible, of course the sins of men testify. But the divine will is uniform …]

the cognitive acts of the angels are uniform: for they receive the knowledge of truth from one fount of truth; namely, God. Their cognition is also immutable, because they see directly the pure truth about things… It is even incapable of defect, since they directly intuit the very natures…of things, and understanding cannot err in regard to such objects …]Therefore, our intellectual knowledge must be regulated by means of the angels’ knowledge.

…] though God alone directly works on the choice made by man, the action of an angel does have some effect on man’s choice by way of persuasion …]

the operation of an angel…is merely like something disposing toward choice; while God’s operation is like something perfecting.

Now, since a disposition which results from a quality of the body, or from an intellectual persuasion, does not bring necessity to the act of choice, a man does not always choose what his guardian angel intends…But a man does choose in all cases the object in accord with God’s operation within his will.

Consequently, the guardianship of the angels is sometimes frustrated, according to this text: “We would have cured Babylon, but she is not healed” (Jer. 51:9);

…] a person is disposed to an act of choice by an angel, by means of an intellectual consideration, without passion. In fact, this happens in two ways. Sometimes, a man’s understanding is enlightened by an angel to know only that something is a good thing to be done, but it is not instructed as to the reason why it is a good, since this reason is derived from the end. Thus, at times, a man thinks that something is a good thing to be done, “but, if he be asked why, he would answer that he does not know. But sometimes he is instructed by angelic illumination, both that this act is good and as to the reason why it is good, which depends on the end.

 

[Starrsmother]

The Doctor Angelicus, Thomas Aquinas, said some amazing things about angels…I invite you to find out more

My sister told me awhile back that each guardian angel has a name and that if you meditate on it long enough, the name will come to you. She swears that she read this somewhere and that her angel’s name is “George”. My sister is not normally crazy–infact, she’s pretty normal most of the time. I admit, however, that when she told me this I laughed out loud. Has anyone else ever heard of something like this–or should I have my kid sis committed? LOL!

 

[thistle]

My sister told me awhile back that each guardian angel has a name and that if you meditate on it long enough, the name will come to you. She swears that she read this somewhere and that her angel’s name is “George”. My sister is not normally crazy–infact, she’s pretty normal most of the time. I admit, however, that when she told me this I laughed out loud. Has anyone else ever heard of something like this–or should I have my kid sis committed? LOL!

This is the answer given by an Apologist some time ago in the Ask An Apologist forum.

“We can only speculate, but perhaps the practice is discouraged because guardian angels are not our children or our pets. They are creatures of God, with their own personal dignity and vastly superior to humans by nature and intellect. They guard us because it is the will of God that they do so, but we should not presume to know the name given them by God and should not presume to demand a name of them through prayer. If such a name is revealed without our seeking it, that would be a private revelation that should be vetted for supernatural origin by one’s confessor or spiritual director before belief is granted. For purposes of praying to a guardian angel, it would suffice to refer to the angel as “Guardian.””

The above answer is based on the section below from a Church document:

Popular devotion to the holy angels, which is legitimate and good, can, however, also give rise to possible deviations … [such as the] practice of assigning names to the holy angels [which] should be discouraged, except in the cases of Gabriel, Raphael, and Michael whose names are contained in Holy Scripture (Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy 217).

 

[lifelessons]

The Doctor Angelicus, Thomas Aquinas, said some amazing things about angels…I invite you to find out more

Thank you , wow how fascinating. I am going to research more of his writings.

 

[lifelessons]

As a child I remember being told sometimes our Guardian Angel protects us from physical harm. Is this true? I also remember walking to school and day dreaming and began to cross a road and I just froze still and immediately a bus sped past and I would certainly have been hit if I hadn’t suddenly stopped. I always thought it was my Angel protecting me.

 

[lifelessons]

This is the answer given by an Apologist some time ago in the Ask An Apologist forum.

“We can only speculate, but perhaps the practice is discouraged because guardian angels are not our children or our pets. They are creatures of God, with their own personal dignity and vastly superior to humans by nature and intellect. They guard us because it is the will of God that they do so, but we should not presume to know the name given them by God and should not presume to demand a name of them through prayer. If such a name is revealed without our seeking it, that would be a private revelation that should be vetted for supernatural origin by one’s confessor or spiritual director before belief is granted. For purposes of praying to a guardian angel, it would suffice to refer to the angel as “Guardian.””

The above answer is based on the section below from a Church document:

Popular devotion to the holy angels, which is legitimate and good, can, however, also give rise to possible deviations … [such as the] practice of assigning names to the holy angels [which] should be discouraged, except in the cases of Gabriel, Raphael, and Michael whose names are contained in Holy Scripture (Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy 217).

Thistle , would it then be wrong to talk to our Guardian Angel

 

[thistle]

Thistle , would it then be wrong to talk to our Guardian Angel

From everything I have read we are simply not supposed to give them a name or seek to find out their name. Of course we can talk to them. There are prayers to our guardian angels.

 

[Godric2]

I have never thought of saying a prayer to my guardian angel, but come to think of it I do remeber a childhood invocation.

Is there a traditional Catholic prayer to a guardian angel?

I have often felt strengthened by the doctrine of the angels.



Maria Desolata

 

[thistle]

I have never thought of saying a prayer to my guardian angel, but come to think of it I do remeber a childhood invocation.

Is there a traditional Catholic prayer to a guardian angel?

I have often felt strengthened by the doctrine of the angels.



Maria Desolata

ewtn.com/devotionals/prayers/angel2.htm