Today is the feast day of our Guardian Angels!
A 2007 Harris poll found that 74% of U.S. adults believed in angels.
The word “angel,” in Greek is angelos, in Hebrew is malach, in Arabic is mala’ika– which all mean “messenger.”
Angels are incorporeal (bodiless) spiritual beings who act as intermediaries between God and humanity. Angels are defined by their function as message-bearers, although this capacity does not exhaust their activities. As spirits, they are believed to have been created by God to serve the supreme deity by fulfilling any and all tasks assigned to them.
Major philosophers — such as Thomas Aquinas, René Descartes, John Locke, and most recently, the American philosopher Mortimer Adler — have put forth compelling reasoning for the existence of Angels.
Scripture tells us there is a hierarchy of Angels — there are various gradations or “orders” of Angels. We know this because in Genesis 3:24, Isaiah 6:1-7, Ezekiel 1, 10, Romans 8:38, Ephesians 1:21, 3:10, 6:12, Colossians 1:16, 2:10, 2:15, allusions are made to “seraphim,” “cherubim,” “thrones,” “dominions,” “mights,” “powers,” and “principalities” in the “heavenly places.”
Aquinas and other theologians say only the last three angelic orders minister to human beings:
- Principalities are in charge of the whole of humanity — of nations or countries.
- Archangels minister to nations — their leaders and those persons whom God tasks with special work to do on earth.
- Angels, the last order, are God’s messengers and guardians of individual human beings.
How do we know each of us has a Guardian Angel?
Because Jesus tells us so!
“See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 18:10)
Just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean our Guardian Angels aren’t with us all the time. In fact, there are many stories of angelic encounters and assistance. See, for example:
- “We have no nurse named Benjamin,” Aug. 11, 2013.
- “Near death, Sen. Mark Kirk saw three Angels,” Jan. 6, 2013.
- “The Angel who visited a girl with leukemia,” Dec. 24, 2012.
- “Angel saves woman from horrific car crash,” Nov. 18, 2012.
You’ll find more angel stories on FOTM’s “Angels & Saints” page, including “A Prayer to our Guardian Angel.”
My days are so busy with blogging and housework that the only time when my mind is at rest is when I’m taking my solitary walk in the hills. On one such walk, I talked to my Guardian Angel and humbly asked him to show he’s there. Instantaneously, I felt his presence walking alongside me, to my right. I can’t tell you what he looks like (he is a bodiless spirit after all), but what I felt was his staggeringly profound LOVE — a love that is unconditional.
Talk to your Guardian Angel!
He loves you very very much, more than you’ll ever know.
And thank your Guardian Angel today — for watching over and protecting you, and for loving you.
~Eowyn
