Dear Godfrey, When was the last time you thanked God for your guardian angel?\u00a0 When was the last time you thanked your guardian angel?\u00a0 When was the last time you asked your guardian angel for a favor? \u2026 I can hear you stammering for an answer halfway across the globe.\u00a0 Your recent note makes it painfully clear that you are falling into the non-Catholic mentality that sees God as a miser.\u00a0 God is not a miser.\u00a0 He does not reserve every good deed to himself.\u00a0 He is abundantly generous, like the most lavish of kings.\u00a0 His court in heaven is bustling with saints, angels, and who-knows-what-else all busily and joyfully going back and forth as they take care of the projects their Lord has assigned them.\u00a0 He is surrounded by a \u201ccountless host\u201d of those who love him, and he is glad to keep them all busy building his Kingdom (and they are glad to be able to do something for him).\u00a0 To ask your patron saint to pray for you, to beg St John Cupertino\u2019s assistance in your midterms, to talk to St Cecilia about the song you\u2019re working on\u2026 This is part of the great glory of being members of the Christian family, a family whose ties extend beyond the boundaries of time and space.\u00a0 Catholics are family people \u2013 even the hermits, the holiest of which have the steadiest stream of visitors. If this overwhelms you, maybe you should just start with a simple prayer to your guardian angel.\u00a0 The Church has long believed (and Scripture supports it) that God has assigned each of us a kind of heavenly bodyguard, a \u201cguardian angel.\u201d\u00a0 They help lead us along the path to heaven by defending us from evil (and from the evil angels, also knows as demons, which are equally real), helping us in prayer, and making little suggestions about doing good deeds.\u00a0 They never actually make us do anything (neither does the devil \u2013 that would constitute a violation of our free will, which God will not tolerate), but God allows them to influence our imagination and our senses (memory, interior perception\u2026) in order to encourage us to do what is good.\u00a0 They are pure spiritual beings, much more powerful than ourselves, and they are at the service of God for our benefit.\u00a0 Therefore, to ignore them would be foolish, not to mention ungrateful. I have to go now, but I want to leave you this new translation of an ancient Latin prayer to the guardian angel, in case you haven\u2019t seen it before.\u00a0 It\u2019s a great way to keep plugged in to your extended family \u2013 I always say it when I go on a trip, long or short (which hasn\u2019t happened for quite some time now): \u201cAngel sent by God to guide me; be my light and walk beside me; be my guardian and protect me; on the paths of life direct me.\u201d I will ask my guardian angel to give yours a hand today (which is their feast day), and jumpstart your relationship.\u00a0 I really have to go. God bless, Uncle Eddy Uncle Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Godfrey, When was the last time you thanked God for your guardian angel?\u00a0 When was the last time you thanked your guardian angel?\u00a0 When was the last time you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":145992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3719],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-142244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncle-eddy"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n