October 2 + The Holy Guardian Angels

The truth that each and every human soul has a Guardian Angel who protects us from both spiritual and physical evil has been shown throughout the Old Testament, and is made very clear in the New. The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls "angels" is a truth of Faith. The witness of Scripture is as clear as the unanimity of Tradition.

From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession. Their role is to represent individuals before God, to watch over them always, to aid their prayer, and to present their souls to God at death.

It is written that the Lord Jesus was strengthened by an angel in the Garden of Gethsemane, and that an angel delivered Saint Peter from prison in the Acts of the Apostles.

But Jesus makes the existence and function of guardian angels explicit when he says, "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).

Devotion to the angels began to develop with the birth of the monastic tradition. Saint Benedict gave it impetus and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the great 12th-century reformer, was such an eloquent spokesman for the guardian angels that angelic devotion assumed its current form in his day.

The prayer to the guardian angels has been present in the Church since at least the beginning of the 12th century:

Angel of God,
my Guardian dear,
to whom His love
commits me here,
ever this day
be at my side,
to light and guard,
to rule and guide.
Amen.