"Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly..."
I'm not so sure that I've ever really given too much thought to the idea of guardian angels. And, quite honestly, the Vatican has never officially confirmed or denied the celestial beings that are believed to keep a watchful eye on us humans down here on Earth. So why, then, do we attribute some acts of grace to angels rather than to God Himself?
Today at mass, Fr. Bill talked a lot about our guardian angels as a means of secondary causality; sometimes God speaks to us through other people or uses His heavenly angels to speak to us in ways that we perhaps wouldn't hear ordinarily. I think many people find comfort in the belief of a guardian angel, perhaps a loved one who has died or one's patron saint...
But I wonder why we need the intermediary between ourselves and God? What is so unattainable that we need angels to connect us with the Divine? Fr. Bill also talked about the idea of continuity, whereby living things are ordered in their relation to the Divine, plants, animals, humans, angels, then God. Well, there exists a vast chasm between humans and God that it is the angels that connect us so intimately with the presence and grace of God.
With all of that being said, I'm not sure I've come up with a conclusion on guardian angels. But I do know this, whatever way God chooses to speak to me, either through other people or through angels, I'm trying my best to listen. It's not always easy or what I want, but like in Jeremiah, it is not my will, but God's. What a tough lesson to learn.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Kate--couldn't our guardian angels be like the angels in "City of Angels"--making us late when we need to be or pushing us out of the way when we need it, etc? I loved that part of the movie, which is why it is one my favorite movies (besides the whole ending which isn't that great.) xo
Maybe angels are supposed to be like a lightbulb going off over our heads to remind us that God is there, if we need Him, and we've forgotten.
Sometimes we need a nudge to remind us. I used to have this same problem with the Sacrament of Penance. Why do I need to go through a priest, why can't I speak directly to God for forgiveness?
But then I realized that Penance was actually a gift from Jesus to us and who am I to say i don't need to use it?
Love, Auntie Kathy
Reading your post reminds me of something that happened when Jeffrey was little. He was playing in the living room I think and he kept talking over his shoulder. I asked him who he was talking to. He said "Papa, can't you see him?" He told me that Papa talked to him all the time. I remember you and Jeff walking with him in the back yard on Thomas St. copying his limp. You were both small, following him around. I just never imagined that Papa made such an impression on Jeff. I like to think that Papa was watching over him.
Your mother and I have talked about the idea of a guardian angel. I agree with her post. That they are there to protect us, making us late when we need to be, or pushing us out of the way when we need it. Or leading us to the right spot at the right time.
Love, Auntie Dee xoxo
Post a Comment