Where did the idea of the gaurdian angel originate?

[St_Redemption]

Is there scriptural basis or was it determined at a particular Catholic gathering etc?

 

[SAVINGRACE]

Cactholic Answers apologist Jimmy Akins explains below:

youtube.com/watch?v=EpnTKORLOvQ

 

[Todd977]

9 Because you have made the Lord your refuge,
the Most High your habitation,
10 no evil shall befall you,
no scourge come near your tent.
11 For he will give his angels charge of you
to guard you in all your ways.
12 On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you dash your foot against a stone. (Psalm 91:9-12)

 

[eazyduzit]

Cactholic Answers apologist Jimmy Akins explains below:

youtube.com/watch?v=EpnTKORLOvQ

Good answer but incomplete. We also understand the ministry of angels from Heb1:14. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.”

 

[JerryZ]

Is there scriptural basis or was it determined at a particular Catholic gathering etc?

Jesus declared pretty unambiguously about the guardian Angels.

Matthew Chapter 18

10 See to it that you do not despise even one of these little ones. For I say to you, that their Angels in heaven continually look upon the face of my Father, who is in heaven.

In the context Jesus is speaking about little children. However this is not the only place that we see the concept of “Guardian Angel”

…

 

[SAVINGRACE]

Good answer but incomplete. We also understand the ministry of angels from Heb1:14. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.”

The OP asked about the Catholic perspective hence the post in Traditional Catholicism" section. That’s it. What other denominations teach whilst interesting is totally irrelevant.

 

[oldgraymare2]

Is there scriptural basis or was it determined at a particular Catholic gathering etc?

Here is more information for you regarding Angels from the New Advent website.

I think that the info. on the page is quite interesting and gives some good general info. about Angels, with some Scripture references, too:

newadvent.org/cathen/01476d.htm

 

[Sunlight]

Do you think guardian angels are real? What is a role of a guardian angel? To protect?
Can someone explain why sometimes horrifically bad things happen to very very good people? I went to a roman catholic school and I remember my 8th grade teacher saying to the class that guardian angels are a made up story but she also said Adam and Eve is a made up story. Keep in mind this is a roman catholic school… I wish she never said that because it stuck in my mind for years and it bothered me. I really want to believe in it though!!!

 

[Stephen_says]

From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

That every individual soul has a guardian angel has never been defined by the Church, and is, consequently, not an article of faith; but it is the “mind of the Church”, as St. Jerome expressed it: “how great the dignity of the soul, since each one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard it.”

Guardian angels aren’t around us to protect us bodily, though there are stories of this happening.

Guardian angels are charged with protecting our spiritual life and to intercede for us, but we must ask them to do so. If we ignore them, just like if we ignore any other aspect of our spiritual life, we will fall into sin.

They are not magical, and there is no guarantee that bad things will never happen for us.

They are just another one of the many vehicles that God uses to impart his graces onto us.

 

[midori]

Some early Church fathers opined that guardian angels were assigned at conception, or at birth, or at x number of days past conception depending on whether you were male or female, or whatever… so I don’t think there’s ever been any real attempt to pin down dogma regarding timeline regarding when someone gets assigned an angel. But of course, you have Matthew 18, which has Jesus indicating that even children have “their” angels in heaven.

However, the Biblical guardian angel story I like best is from Acts 12, “Peter’s Miraculous Escape from Prison”, where the people inside the house think that it’s his guardian angel knocking on the door.

6 The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.

8 Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. 9 Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.

11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”

12 When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. 13 Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”

15 “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”

16 But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. 17 Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.

 

[JimG]

catholic.com/quickquestions/if-we-are-given-a-guardian-angel-at-baptism-does-that-mean-non-christians-dont-have-g

 

[AnneElizabeth]

Its in Scripture. Even Jesus mentions people having guardian angels.

 

[HelenRose]

Do you think guardian angels are real? What is a role of a guardian angel? To protect?
Can someone explain why sometimes horrifically bad things happen to very very good people? I went to a roman catholic school and I remember my 8th grade teacher saying to the class that guardian angels are a made up story but she also said Adam and Eve is a made up story. Keep in mind this is a roman catholic school… I wish she never said that because it stuck in my mind for years and it bothered me. I really want to believe in it though!!!

I can not offer any proof about guardian angels but I do believe each one of has a guardian angels. I don’t think, though, that guardian angels are like magic genii that fly out of a lamp to rescue us.

I often go to my grown children’s guardian angels because I know that their guardian angels know, love and understand my children even better that I do. I ask these angels to help me find the best way to help my kids and their families. There are times when I am about to say or do something that would be best not said or done, I sense a gentle warning.

There have been times when out of the blue a warning or reminder comes to my mind that has saved me from hurting someone’s feelings. The one time I remember most vividly is the day I was shopping with my mother and my sister. I had forgotten about a grave side service for the mother of a friend. Driving home, out of the blue with no warning, I remembered. We turned around and was just in time to walk up to the grave side as if I had been thinking of this all day. Besides our friend’s wife; my mother, my sister and I were the only ones there. He was so touched and so grateful. It meant so much to him and his wife that we were there. There is no other explanation in my mind for this gift that put us there just at the right time.

Perhaps all a guardian angel can do for us, is to weep for us.
I have no answer for the evil in the world. I am grateful for the good and know that somehow, someway we will understand

May the wings of your guardian angel
Surround and comfort you

 

[oldgraymare2]

Do you think guardian angels are real? What is a role of a guardian angel? To protect?
Can someone explain why sometimes horrifically bad things happen to very very good people? I went to a roman catholic school and I remember my 8th grade teacher saying to the class that guardian angels are a made up story but she also said Adam and Eve is a made up story. Keep in mind this is a roman catholic school… I wish she never said that because it stuck in my mind for years and it bothered me. I really want to believe in it though!!!

Here is a reference to angels in Scripture in Psalm 91 from www.catholic.org:

1 You who live in the secret place of Elyon, spend your nights in the shelter of Shaddai,

2 saying to Yahweh, ‘My refuge, my fortress, my God in whom I trust!’

3 He rescues you from the snare of the fowler set on destruction;

4 he covers you with his pinions, you find shelter under his wings. His constancy is shield and protection.

5 You need not fear the terrors of night, the arrow that flies in the daytime,

6 the plague that stalks in the darkness, the scourge that wreaks havoc at high noon.

7 Though a thousand fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, you yourself will remain unscathed.

8 You have only to keep your eyes open to see how the wicked are repaid,

9 you who say, ‘Yahweh my refuge!’ and make Elyon your fortress.

10 No disaster can overtake you, no plague come near your tent;

**11 he has given his angels orders about you to guard you wherever you go.

12 They will carry you in their arms in case you trip over a stone.
**
13 You will walk upon wild beast and adder, you will trample young lions and snakes.

14 'Since he clings to me I rescue him, I raise him high, since he acknowledges my name.

15 He calls to me and I answer him: in distress I am at his side, I rescue him and bring him honour.

16 I shall satisfy him with long life, and grant him to see my salvation.’

Guardian angels help protect us. They can help guide our consciences to do what is right, and can also protect us from harm and evil.

Bad things can happen to people due to the free will of others, and due to the presence of sin and evil in the world.

 

[thistle]

From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

That every individual soul has a guardian angel has never been defined by the Church, and is, consequently, not an article of faith; but it is the “mind of the Church”, as St. Jerome expressed it: “how great the dignity of the soul, since each one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard it.”

Guardian angels aren’t around us to protect us bodily, though there are stories of this happening.

Guardian angels are charged with protecting our spiritual life and to intercede for us, but we must ask them to do so. If we ignore them, just like if we ignore any other aspect of our spiritual life, we will fall into sin.

They are not magical, and there is no guarantee that bad things will never happen for us.

They are just another one of the many vehicles that God uses to impart his graces onto us.

Catholics are bound to believe in guardian angels. It is a Church teaching.

CCC 336 From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession. “Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.” Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God.

 

[St_Redemption]

Thanks guys, very helpful