The 25th Sunday after Pentecost and Time With Our Guardian Angels

Let's try to wake up our awareness and devotion to our Guardian Angels on this 25th Sunday after Pentecost.

We celebrated the Feast of Our Guardians a few weeks back. Remember? If not, no need to fret. They'll get over it. Indeed, for many of us, the presence of our Guardians is, well, remote. We don't think much of them. 

On the other hand, some of us do have a lively sense of the presence of our Guardian - as in our Guardian. The "our" or perhaps "my" is critical. We each have an individual angel "assigned" to us at birth. So the singular possessive expresses the real nature of our relationship with our Guardian. And given that individual relationship, we need to relate to our Guardian in a deeply personal way. Our Guardian is with us all the time, and cares deeply about us. And so we can reciprocate by caring deeply about our Guardian.

Our friend, Father Willie Doyle, had a lively sense of his angel's closeness. Commenting on an outdoor Mass at the front during World War I in a letter home to his father he said:

 

I had never celebrated Mass in the open before, and I think the men were as much impressed as I was. It was a glorious morning with just a sufficient spice of danger to give the necessary warlike touch to the picture by the presence of a German aeroplane scouting near at hand. I was a wee bit anxious lest a bomb might come down in the middle of the men, but I fancy our unwelcome visitor had quite enough to do, dodging the shells from our guns which kept booming all during Mass; besides I felt confident that for once our guardian angels would do their duty and protect us all till Mass was over.

And on another occasion he comments on the danger he faced when burying a dead soldier in a dangerous spot at night:
 

As soon as it was dark we carried the poor fellow out on a stretcher, just as he had fallen, and as quietly as we could began to dig the grave. It was weird. We were standing in front of the German trenches on two sides, though a fair distance away, and every now and then a star-shell went up which we felt certain would reveal our presence to the enemy. I put my ritual in the bottom of my hat and with the aid of an electric torch read the burial service, while the men screened the light with their caps, for a single flash would have turned the machine guns on us. I cannot say if we were seen or not, but all the time bullets came whizzing by, though more than likely stray ones and not aimed at us. Once I had to get the men to lie down as things were rather warm (dangerous); but somehow I felt quite safe, as if the dead soldiers guardian angel was sheltering us from all danger, till the poor dust was laid to rest. It was my first war burial though assuredly not my last. May God rest his soul and comfort those left to mourn him.

And here Fr Doyle recounts how he felt that his guardian angel helped save him from a poison gas attack:

I saw both right and left of where I stood the green wave of a second gas attack rolling towards me like some huge spectre stretching out its ghostly arms. As I saw it coming, my heart went out to God in one fervent act of gratitude for His goodness to me. As probably you know we all carry smoke helmets slung over our shoulders in a case, to be used against a gas attack. That morning as I was leaving my dugout I threw my helmet aside. I had a fairly long walk before me, the helmet is a bit heavy on a hot day, and as I said, German gas was most unlikely. So I made up my mind to leave it behind. In view of what happened, it may appear imagination now, but a voice seemed to whisper loudly in my ear: “Take your helmet with you; don t leave without it”.  I turned back and slung it over my shoulder. Surely it was the warning voice of my guardian angel, for if I had not done so, you would never have had this letter.

Later on, recounting the above close escape, he further noted: “Some invisible, almost physical, force turned me back to get my helmet”.

If we have a good relationship with our Guardian, perhaps we understand Father's remarks. If we don't have such a relationship, perhaps we an look to his remarks as a way to gain an understanding of just what our relationship should be.

Either way, we can certainly take a few moments today to acknowledge this great gift God has given to each of us.

 

Happy Sunday!