Help on Guardian Angels

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pegasusu

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I need help, My Grandfather who is very catholic told me that my guardian angel is the Archangel St Uriel. However, as time passed on, I learned that Uriel is not part of the Archangelic Veneration of Roman Catholicism, and I learned that they do venerate him and count him as an archangel in Eastern Catholicism. Does this mean I can’t call my Guardian Angel the Archangel Uriel nor even assume it’s one of the Archangels? I’ve always felt it was awesome to have one of the Princely Archangels to be my guardian angel (my cousin does have Gabriel as his). So now I’m confused, Does this mean my guardian angel isn’t an archangel nor Uriel (since the Latin Church doesn’t venerate him, thus not allowing me to venerate him as such)?
 
I don’t know how your grandad has reached that conclusion - we do have guardian angels but we are not given their names. Try to just thank God for your angel and don’t get too bogged down with its name.
 
Do you have any ancestry that you know of in the Eastern Catholic Church? Have you tried praying to him to see what happens? I am Eastern Catholic and never heard of him. Keep in mind that I am Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic. He can be Melkite or something. We are not Orthodox!
 
First of all, I know that the Latin Church only officially permits the veneration of the three archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. However, I have been to Mass in Catholic churches where St. Uriel was represented in the art as the fourth Archangel, and seen pictures of other Catholic churches where St. Uriel had a statue or a stained glass window. Additionally, the Eastern Catholic churches venerate him. Therefore, I think all things considered, it is not a problem if we follow the Eastern Catholic tradition of venerating St. Uriel if we wish (or skip it if we don’t wish to do that).

Second, having said that, Archangels are not guardian angels. Archangels have special missions from God. You have a unique guardian angel whose name you don’t know and we’re not supposed to try and find out. It may be that your Grandfather prayed to St. Uriel for you, and regarded St. Uriel as sort of your patron saint. But St. Uriel is not your guardian angel. It’s two different angels.
 
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I’m not sure how he reached that conclusion. It’s nearly impossible to know who your guardian angel is without their help.
 
TB’s second paragraph is important. Archangels are an entirely different order of angels from those who guard each of us. This doesn’t mean you can’t privately pray to St Uriel, however. He’d probably be pleased with the attention! But do pray to your guardian angel as well.

If you are interested in these matters, Peter Kreeft’s book, Angels (and Demons) is an excellent starter.
 
Cant address the name of your Guardian Angel, but I did a lot of study on the names of angels last fall, and I can share some of my conclusions.

First, here’s a great link:
https://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/angel4.htm

Second, we only know the names of a very few angels, and, when contemplating the names of angels, we can’t know them. Jacob asked the angel his name after wrestling with him, and the angel acknowledges he has a name, but it is too wonderful for humans to hear. Brother Bernard, who was one of the first Franciscans, was once assisted by an angel, and was so happy afterward - he asked the angel his name, and the angel replied, “Why do you ask my name - which is wonderful?”

My original question was, “Was ‘Wonderful’ the angels name then? Or did he mean it was just wonderful that Brother Bernard would ask it?” Since Jacob received a similar answer, it seems the meaning of the angels response is that it was just wonderful for Brother Bernard to have asked.

Some new age books say you can ask your angels their name. It seems to make sense because you want to call them, and we call (summon) people by using their name. So I tried it once, and I came up with “eph”… or “eph-ra”… which I later connected possibly to “Ephraim” or “Ephrem”, but I think it was better just to listen to the Bible and not worry about it.

Why?

The way St Thomas Aquinas describe it, Angels are of various qualities and ranks; meaning some are good and some are bad. And, yet, he also says the way angels operate and move exists in God’s time, and they always seem to be looking forward.

We know the names of three good angels, Raphael, Michael and Gabriel. But we also know the names of at least two bad ones: Satan and Legion.

The ways angels are said to operate seems kind of like a constant motion forward, as best I understand it. But summoning them, or calling them, by human standards seems kind of difficult because we think of kind of like “we call” and then “wait” to see if the call is “answered” - but notice how the past tense sets in… The problem seems to be, there is no past or future tense in God’s time - which is eternally present… Angels move by making decisions according to their office, but they are always looking at God in so doing… So if in “calling” them by a name, we think we can wait (for them to respond in the future) by having called them (in the past) then - it would seem to mess up the timing somehow… Hence, mortal man cannot really call an angel by name, except in a few cases God has deigned to allow us to know in a human sense…

Do I know what I am talking about? Probably not. I’m just speculating as best I can. This is the most sense I can make of it.

My thought would be to try to follow your Guardian angel, not call him. He’ll likely know you better than you do yourself, and so he’ll be there ahead of you at all times, so he will know if you need him such that you would “call” him. I hope that makes some sense…
 
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