Help me understand what the Guardian Angel Prayer is saying

[BeforeSainthood]

This is a classic prayer that many/most Catholics grew up with. I’ve started teaching it to my own kids, and all of a sudden I’m getting confused at what it means when it says: “To whom God’s love commits me here.” What? Commits “me” here? Someone please help me out. I feel silly asking. For such a classic prayer, I know this has got to be easy but for some reason my puny brain is getting tangled in the grammar and I’m having a hard time understanding. Does this part make sense to other people? Here is the prayer:

Angel of God,
my guardian dear,
To whom God’s love
commits me here,
Ever this day,
be at my side,
To light and guard,
Rule and guide.

Amen.

 

[LilyM]

“Commits” means “entrusts”, as in Jesus saying to the Father "into your hands I commit my spirit ". Of course there are other meanings but this is one.

So that line means that God gives us each a guardian angel, and so we are to “commit”, or entrust, ourselves to the care of that angel.

 

[BeforeSainthood]

Ok, that helps!! “Because of God’s love, I entrust myself to the care of my guardian angel here (while I’m on earth).”

It’s interesting because I was definitely thinking that the angels were the ones that were committed/tasked by God to help us out. Hadn’t occurred to me that this prayer is referencing that we also need to commit/entrust ourselves to their care.

Thank you!

 

[Todd_Easton]

God, because of his love for you, has commanded an angel to guard you here on earth. In other words, God’s love entrusts you here to an angel for your safekeeping. In other words, God’s love commits you here to an angel. Thus, when addressing your guardian angel, you pray, “Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here, …”