Word to the Wise
Thursday, October 2, 2025 - Oct. 2 - The Guardian Angels
[Exod 23:20-23 and Matt 18:1-5, 10]"See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father." [Matthew]
OCTOBER 2 THE HOLY GUARDIAN ANGELS
Angels appear once again! The existence of a guardian angel for each person is attested to as early as St.Jerome (4th-5th century) but affirmed in the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas (I, q.113): "Because our present life is a sort of road along which many dangers, internal and external, lie in wait, an angel is a appointed for each man as long as he is a wayfarer."
When I have preached on this feast day, I have often asked the congregation to recite with me the prayer I learned in the first grade, "Angel of God, my guardian dear...." My first grade teacher told us to move over in our desks to allow the guardian angel to sit down!!! Human imagination supplies figures in long gowns with feathered wings and halos, but what is more important is faith in God's providential care. We can make it more difficult for that care to have effect because we have free will, but as a matter of faith, that guardian angel is there "to light, to guard, to rule and guide!" AMEN