Guardian Angels
Objection: “As for guardian angels, they are a belief imported into
Catholicism from the pagan Assyrians and Babylonians. God can help
us without them.”
God can certainly help us without the aid of any intermediary or creature.
Nevertheless, that He wills to use intermediaries is evident in the
Scriptures. It is Church teaching that every person has allotted to them a
Guardian Angel by God. It is clear from both the Old and New Testaments
that angels are God’s ministers who carry out His will, and at appointed
times are allotted special commissions to intervene in the affairs of
mankind.
According to St. Thomas Aquinas (S.T., I, q. 112, a. 4) only the lower five
choirs of angels are sent to us as guardians. Guardian Angels can act upon
our senses and our imaginations, and, through these faculties, upon our
wills. Not only the baptized, but every person, including children, receives
a Guardian Angel, who remains with us even in heaven. In the opinion of
many Fathers and other holy writers every country, city, town and village
also has a Guardian Angel. Altars, churches, parishes, dioceses and
religious institutions do likewise. Even the Antichrist will have a Guardian
Angel, who will restrain him from committing otherwise greater evils.
The good offices performed by the Guardian Angels on our behalf can be
summarized as follows: ¹
(i)
They preserve us from many unknown dangers to soul and body.
(ii)
They defend us against the temptations of evil spirits.
(iii)
They inspire in us holy thoughts and prompt us to deeds of virtue.
1
See: The Benedictine Convent of Perpetual Adoration, The Guardian Angels––
Our Heavenly Companions, TAN Books, 1996, pp. 8-10, 16.
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