"He has given his angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways. Let them thank the Lord for his mercy; his wonderful works are for the children of men. Let them give thanks and say among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. O Lord, what is man that you have made yourself known to him, or why do you incline your heart to him? And you do incline your heart to him; you show him your care and your concern. Finally, you send your only Son and the grace of your Spirit, and promise him a vision of your countenance. And so, that nothing in heaven should be wanting in your concern for us, you send those blessed spirits to serve us, assigning them as our guardians and our teachers.
He has given his angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways. These words should fill you with respect, inspire devotion and instil confidence; respect for the presence of angels, devotion because of their loving service, and confidence because of their protection. And so the angels are here; they are at your side, they are with you, present on your behalf. They are here to protect you and to serve you. But even if it is God who has given them this charge, we must nonetheless be grateful to them for the great love with which they obey and come to help us in our great need.
So let us be devoted and grateful to such great protectors; let us return their love and honour them as much as we can and should. Yet all our love and honor must go to him, for it is from him that they receive all that makes them worthy of our love and respect.
We should then, my brothers, show our affection for the angels, for one day they will be our co-heirs just as here below they are our guardians and trustees appointed and set over us by the Father. We are God’s children although it does not seem so, because we are still but small children under guardians and trustees, and for the present little better than slaves.
Even though we are children and have a long, a very long and dangerous way to go, with such protectors what have we to fear? They who keep us in all our ways cannot be overpowered or led astray, much less lead us astray. They are loyal, prudent, powerful. Why then are we afraid? We have only to follow them, stay close to them, and we shall dwell under the protection of God’s heaven."
--Excerpt from Sermo 12 in psalmum Qui habitat, 3. 6-8 by St Bernard of Clairvaux
Today the Church celebrates the memorial of St Bernard, known as the "Mellifluos Doctor" because of his eloquence.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
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3 comments:
Thank you for your post. Sometimes I joke around and tell my guardian angel that he must have drawn the short straw in heaven; but the truth is I feel very blessed and thankful to have him. When I think of the things I used to do before my conversion,I cringe. How sad he must have been at how I could offend so great a God.
Thank you, Lord, for my precious guardian angel!
Dear Mary333,
You'd be surprised how many religious and priests, before their conversion and entrance in religious life, did things most people think unimaginable. That's the beauty of conversion. You go to confession with a contrite heart (the one sacrifice God asks of all of us), and He forgives and forgets your all your sins. Then He "washes you and makes you white as snow." Think of it as laundering the soul: you have a stained cloth item and you forget how the stain came about, but you wash it and scrub it and go through great troubles to make it nice and clean - the way it was before the stain happened. That's what God does with His loving grace. So do not fret about the past, be thankful for today and ask Him to give you the grace to grow in virtue every day. And, remember, there's no greater joy in Heaven than when a sinner converts. So I'm sure your guardian angel hosted an awesome party for you when you converted. :)
God bless you!
What a great post Sister!:) Thank you for sharing this!
Thank you God for giving me a guardian angel to watch over and gaurd me!;)
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