Why do we need Guardian Angels?

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Might be a stupid question but why do we need Guardian Angels if God has already professed to protect and love us?

If He is omnipresent and omnipotent, why does he need helpers to be watching over us? He could surely protect us from evil/spiritual harm? Why do we need a middle man?

Can’t find a detailed answer online, so fellow Catholics - your thoughts?
 
First - and foremost -
I heard that the very first person we meet - when we die - is our Guardian angel.
 
No one knows why we need a Guardian angel other than God and he hasn’t told us afaik.

Lots of people can speculate, however. lol
 
From the catechism: 336 From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession.202 "Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life."203 Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God.
350 Angels are spiritual creatures who glorify God without ceasing and who serve his saving plans for other creatures: “The angels work together for the benefit of us all” (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh I, 114, 3, ad 3).
 
I mean, technically God could provide absolutely everything we need and we wouldn’t need other humans either, not even parents. But that’s obviously not the way He works.

As far as has been revealed to us, the angels were a prior creation, made to dwell in bliss with God just as we would be (though we seem to have been granted the closer relationship to Him in the end). God employs the loyal angels in various tasks, especially when it comes to communicating with and watching over us. Yes, God can do all that by Himself, but He seems to have judged it better that His creatures help each other as well.
 
Latetotheparty said:
Might be a stupid question but why do we need Guardian Angels if God has already professed to protect and love us?

If He is omnipresent and omnipotent, why does he need helpers to be watching over us? He could surely protect us from evil/spiritual harm? Why do we need a middle man?

Can’t find a detailed answer online, so fellow Catholics - your thoughts?
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It is how the Trinity exercises providence.

Catechism
302 Creation has its own goodness and proper perfection, but it did not spring forth complete from the hands of the Creator. The universe was created “in a state of journeying” (in statu viae) toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it. We call “divine providence” the dispositions by which God guides his creation toward this perfection:
By his providence God protects and governs all things which he has made, “reaching mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and ordering all things well”. For “all are open and laid bare to his eyes”, even those things which are yet to come into existence through the free action of creatures.161
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332 Angels have been present since creation and throughout the history of salvation, announcing this salvation from afar or near and serving the accomplishment of the divine plan: they closed the earthly paradise; protected Lot; saved Hagar and her child; stayed Abraham’s hand; communicated the law by their ministry; led the People of God; announced births and callings; and assisted the prophets, just to cite a few examples. 194 Finally, the angel Gabriel announced the birth of the Precursor and that of Jesus himself. 195

161 Vatican Council I, Dei Filius 1: DS 3003; cf. Wis 8:1; Heb 4:13.
194 Cf. Job 38:7 (where angels are called “sons of God”); Gen 3:24; 19; 21:17; 22:11; Acts 7:53; Ex 23:20-23; Judg 13; 6:11-24; Isa 6:6; 1 Kings 19:5.
195 Cf. Lk 1:11,26.
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Because of the devil.1 Corinthians 15:41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.
Sirach 16:27 He arranged his works in an eternal order, and their dominion for all generations; they neither hunger nor grow weary, and they do not cease from their labors.
Acts 10:34 [ Gentiles Hear the Good News ] And Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality,Romans 2:11 For God shows no partiality.

because of our sins we cannot experience it but he is still the same but hidden and uses angles Isaiah 1:15 When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.Isaiah 2:6 For thou hast rejected thy people, the house of Jacob, because they are full of diviners from the east and of soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with foreigners.Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you so that he does not hear.

Only in heaven will we know the fullness of this truth.1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. 13 So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
 
I don’t think we ‘need’ a guardian angel. It is something God has blessed us with on our earthly journey.
Mine has had to put in a lot of overtime and I am grateful.
 
Latetotheparty said:
Might be a stupid question but why do we need Guardian Angels if God has already professed to protect and love us?

If He is omnipresent and omnipotent, why does he need helpers to be watching over us? He could surely protect us from evil/spiritual harm? Why do we need a middle man?

Can’t find a detailed answer online, so fellow Catholics - your thoughts?
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Why does he need YOU to help those in need around you? He’s omnipotent after all.

It’s not that he NEEDS it. God has no needs. It is this way because this is the way God ordained it; that his creatures participate in the divine work of creation. It’s all part of divine Providence, the full mystery of which will not be fully understood in this life. All we need know at this point is that God has revealed this order to us. He has willed that men and angels will have certain roles and tasks and they will fulfill this to God’s glory.
 
God seems to like separate objects. Where we are concerned, everything around us is made of Fermions, particles with spins of 1/2 and 3/2 that obey the Pauli exclusion principle. Of course, God also made fields in which we are immersed, like electromagnetic fields and gravitational fields. The particle versions of those fields have integral spins: 0, 1, 2. Bosons, as they are called, do not obey the Pauli exclusion principle and like to overlap and both reinforce and cancel each other.

Why He likes that I do not know, but that is how He made the math and physics work out.

Is there some sort of abstract relationship between a love of particles on God’s part and the subtle matter of individual angels? That I do not know. Sometimes, rather than thinking of angels as small beings in relation to the expanse of our universe, I think of them as subroutines with access to most of the memory involved in running a computer simulation.

To get back to the OP’s question, in comparison to God an atomic particle (a Fermion, like an electron, say), and an angel composed of subtle matter, are about the same size. You might as well be asking “Why did God make particulate matter?” The answer: we don’t know. All we know is that that’s the way he wanted things to be.

So I guess that is what I will ask you Latetotheparty: Why did God make particulate matter?

PS: After re-reading my post, I thought there might be a slightly snarky tone to it, but that is not how I mean it, none of this is meant as any sort of wise-crack; I’m serious.
 
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Who doesn’t want an advocate?
With so many Catholics denying the need for Our Lady, I think we need our Angel Guardians more than ever.
I know mine is particularly hard working and kind to me.
 
From a poem by Blessed John Henry Newman, in which Gerontius (at the point of his death) hears his Guardian Angel singing:
Code: 
                     My work is done,
                         My task is o'er,
                                And so I come, 
                                Taking it home,
                     For the crown is won,
                                Alleluia,
                     For evermore.

                     My Father gave
                         In charge to me
                                This child of earth
                                E'en from its birth,
                     To serve and save,
                                Alleluia,
                     And saved is he.

                     This child of clay
                         To me was given,
                                To rear and train
                                By sorrow and pain
                     In the narrow way,
                                Alleluia,
                     From earth to heaven.
 
I think it’s just one of the “tools” for lack of a better word, that he uses to protect and love us.
 
Latetotheparty said:
why do we need Guardian Angels
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God is so generous, He gives us way more than we need. On our earth alone, consider the fish of the sea alone; the numbers and diversity of life in the sea, that we will never exhaust to see or study, within all of our combined lifetimes.

Angel companions are a gift of God to help guide us to Himself.
 
So to sum up…
  1. To perform certain duties e.g to greet us after death (surely it would make more sense to be Jesus)
  2. Only God knows. We won’t find out until He wants us to.
  3. God wants his creations to help each other
  4. God protects us by using his Angels ( kind of makes it seem like God couldn’t do it by himself)
  5. It’s God’s way of doing things and always has been
  6. We don’t need them but it’s an extra blessing
  7. Why did He do anything? It’s all how God wants it be. We have roles to fill.
  8. Angels bring us closer to God e.g In the same way of the bible, good priests, the Church
It just occurred to me that maybe Angels aren’t for our benefit . Angels love God and want to serve him so by protecting us (His children), they are fulfilling this need. It’s not really about us at all. Feel a bit sorry that my guardian angel has to go through all my mundane moments…

Very thoughtful posts!
 
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From what I can tell, God loves to use hierarchical systems throughout his creation. The angels are part of that system. Somehow these hierarchical systems maintain the balance and order of the spiritual and physical worlds.
 
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Latetotheparty said:
It just occurred to me that maybe Angels aren’t for our benefit . Angels love God and want to serve him so by protecting us (His children), they are fulfilling this need. It’s not really about us at all. Feel a bit sorry that my guardian angel has to go through all my mundane moments…

Very thoughtful posts!
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That’s also a false conclusion. Scripture is very clear that God has designated angels precisely for our benefit, not just for them fulfill their roles. Psalm 91:11-12; Hebrews 1:14.
 
'Cause they make Angle Dust and a good sprinkling of Angel Dust on top of our Chocolate Devil’s Cakes makes our cakes rise higher…and higher.
 
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