From the time of our birth, God has graced us with a faithful companion, appointed guardian and guide: our dear guardian angel. Posted on 08/13/2008 8:35:22 AM PDT by NYer
From the time of our birth, God has graced us with a faithful companion, appointed guardian and guide: our dear guardian angel.
Angels are spiritual beings who are constantly in God’s Presence, singing praises to Our Creator.
Angels serve as Divine messengers, bringing God’s Will and Word to all humanity. Although we are unable to see them they are there ready to protect and watch over us at God’s command.
The Doctors of the Church teach that the guardianship of the holy angels over men only terminates at the souls’ entrance into Heaven. Some mystics have asserted that it extends to aid in purgatory [see the Unpublished Manuscript on Purgatory].
If we heed the Church and invoke our guardian angels throughout life they will be a most potent help for us at the hour of our death strengthening us against temptation, and comforting us in our agony.
They conduct our souls to judgment. We are assured the angels console us if we are in purgatory, encourage it, and render a most valuable service to the souls in purgatory by inspiring friends and relatives to offer Mass for their intentions and good works for speedy delivery.
These devoted guardians -- to whom we should pray each day (asking their help in purifying here on earth) -- never cease to be concerned with the souls that God has committed to their charge.
Their great mission and desire is to see us home in Heaven.
They are intent on obtaining from God all the graces and favors conducive to our eternal welfare.
The guardian angels pray for their clients with great love before the Throne of God and ascend to present their petitions (in our favor). They descend to bring to the souls in purgatory the favors which they obtained for them from God through the good works of the faithful on earth and, it is said, pass by our place in Heaven everyday.
The guardian angels inform the souls in purgatory who their benefactors are and exhort them to pray for their benefactors. As St. Augustine said: "The departed may be informed by the angels of things happening in this world, in so far as this is permitted by Him to whose judgment everything is subject." The souls cannot pray for themselves but can and do pray and intercede for us while they are in purgatory (and then Heaven).
As St. Margaret of Cortona was praying to Our Lord with tears for all the friends she had lost, they appeared to her surrounded by purifying flames and in such a lamentable condition that she could not endure the sight.
Our Divine Redeemer said to Margaret: "The pains they endure are very great, but would be incomparably greater if they were not visited and consoled by My angels, the sight of whom comforts them in their sufferings and refreshes them in their purification."
St. Jerome expressed:
"How great the dignity of the soul, since each one has from birth an angel commissioned to guard it," added St. Jerome.
Throughout your life, give alms and offer Masses for your friends, relatives and benefactors in the name of your Guardian Angel. Light a candle in honor of him!
In entering Church, unite your intention with that of your angel to adore the Blessed Sacrament.
It is said the one thing they are unable to do that humans can is to receive Holy Communion. Invoke your Guardian Angel at the beginning of your day and evening making an act of loving thanksgiving.
Recite the Chaplet of the guardian angel. Spend some time each day in company with your angel alone. Keep the Feast of the Guardian Angels, and make your birthday a feast of your angel -- who then began his ministry.
Practice some devotion to the Queen of Angels in the name of your guardian.
The guardian angels are the natural intermediaries between earth and purgatory, as they are between purgatory and Heaven.
What a consolation is this to those who during their lives have shown devotion! How often will they be visited if they are detained in purgatory by these pure and charitable spirits.
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The Guardian Angel chaplet is based on the St. Michael chaplet, and honors the nine choirs of angels. Prayers |
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This chaplet is based on the St Michael the Archangel Chaplet in both count and prayers, with its nine sets of three - one each for the nine choirs/levels of angels - each asking for special graces in life. ~INVOCATION~ ~4 PENDANT BEADS~ ~ SALUTATIONS ~ |
bump for later reading
Wow...Purgatory!
I went through RCIA about eight years ago and in none of my classes did we learn anything about Purgatory. Indeed the word was never used.
I am not, by the way, trying to make any point by saying this. I’m simply reflecting on the fact.
I was a Protestant prior to and several years following my marriage. My introduction to Saints was when my mother in law advised my then fiance to pray to St Jude, for lost causes. LOL.
18 years of marriage, 2 children, and a conversion later, she’s warmed up slightly lol.
Nice topic on Guardian Angels.
Fortunately for you, freeper Salvation just posted a thread on this topic. It should make up for what you missed in RCIA.
Can you ask your RCIA instructor if it was somehow overlooked?
I was raised a Jehovah's Witness and even though I left that religion almost 30 years ago I guess that I still retain some aspects of their beliefs, they didn't believe in a fiery hell either.
My personal belief is that you either go to heaven or you go to hell, which I define as an absence of God.
Mine didn’t cover it either, but then we didn’t discuss Sacraments, Graces, Doctrine, Dogma at all. The pastor left for treatment at the Mayo Clinic shortly after, so I’m trying to be charitable and think that his illness is what allowed an utterly feckless woman to teach RCIA using a curriculum that she made up herself. Fortunately, I switched to another parish in time for that pastor to work with me and get me received at the same Easter.
I frankly didn’t understand my original RCIA class at all - it appeared to be just some kind of endurance test. If you show up every Sunday for two years, you can become a Catholic.
I remember before I started RCIA feeling that if there was one thing I was not going to “buy into” it was the doctrine of transubstantiation. In fact once the Priest explained it to me it became very clear to me and my belief in it is total.
I'll let Lewis explain it -- and he was a Belfast Church of Ireland man born and bred --
The right view returns magnificently in Newman's DREAM. There, if I remember it rightly, the saved soul, at the very foot of the throne, begs to be taken away and cleansed. It cannot bear for a moment longer 'With its darkness to affront that light'. Religion has claimed Purgatory.Our souls demand Purgatory, don't they? Would in not break the heart if God said to us, 'It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into the joy'? Should we not reply, 'With submission, sir, and if there is no objection, I'd rather be cleaned first.' 'It may hurt, you know' - 'Even so, sir.'
I assume that the process of purification will normally involve suffering. Partly from tradition; partly because most real good that has been done me in this life has involved it. But I don't think the suffering is the purpose of the purgation. I can well believe that people neither much worse nor much better than I will suffer less than I or more. . . . The treatment given will be the one required, whether it hurts little or much.
My favorite image on this matter comes from the dentist's chair. I hope that when the tooth of life is drawn and I am 'coming round',' a voice will say, 'Rinse your mouth out with this.' This will be Purgatory. The rinsing may take longer than I can now imagine. The taste of this may be more fiery and astringent than my present sensibility could endure. But . . . it will [not] be disgusting and unhallowed."
As ultra-high-church Episcopalians, we already believed in Transubstantiation. Really the only points of doctrine in question were the validity of Anglican orders and the supremacy of the Pope. And as I told our new rector, the invalidity of Anglican orders has been amply proven by the goings-on in that church, and as for the Pope - it's also obvious that a true church will have Adult Leadership.
Or, as my formerly Methodist husband said more succinctly, "We can deal!"
Teaching the Catechism/RCIA is the hardest job I can think of. I mean, SOULS are at stake!
Thanks for the reminder that we are never alone.
I've never been through RCIA, but that seems odd.
Thanks for that CS Lewis post.
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