Get to Know Your Guardian Angel

Dear Father Hampsch: Do I really have a guardian angel who is with me constantly, or is that just a pious belief that is taught to young children? If I could be certain that I have my own personal guardian angel with me constantly, the implications for me would be enormous!

This insightful person was posing to me a question I've often heard before. Is it reasonable to believe in what you cannot see? Absolutely!

You can't see air, and yet you wouldn't doubt that it is essential for your very life. You can't see electricity, and yet today, your life would be unthinkable without it. You can't see atoms, and yet without them your very body—and even the entire cosmos—would not exist. You can't see heat, magnetism, gravity, cosmic radiation or any kind of radiant energy, yet without them you couldn't survive. Many of the "invisible" material things around us are some of the most significant entities in God's creation, in assuring our well-being and even our very existence.

Along with invisible material realities, God has provided us also with invisible spiritual realities, such as virtue, actual and sanctifying grace, and even his own divine presence in many forms, from cosmic to Eucharistic. Among these invisible spiritual realities are those super-intelligent, super-powerful entities called angels, including those holy angelic beings custom-assigned to our personal care as our constant companions, called guardian angels.

Can it really be true that each of us has an angelic companion constantly with us, who is at the same time enjoying the ineffable bliss of the Beatific Vision—seeing the very face of God while in our presence? Is the teaching about guardian angels just a pious belief taught to young children and rhapsodized by a saccharine poem, "Angel of God, my guardian dear..."? If we could really believe that each of us has such a personal, loving, assigned companion living with us at every moment of our lives, this belief would impact our behavior and attitudes in ways that would be positively staggering and radically life-changing.

Yes, each of us does indeed have a personal guardian angel and as my correspondent realized, acknowledging and understanding this truth would utterly transform any person's life, just as the many angelic apparitions mentioned in Bible transformed the lives of those who saw them.

Just think about what it might mean to truly know, either by faith or by actually having seen an angel, that each one of us has the awesome privilege of a personally assigned spiritual guardian. Why, the most forlorn widow in the world would no longer languish in loneliness or self-pity. Those tempted to lust would find it unthinkable to sin in the presence of their heavenly companion. The discouraged or despairing would reinvigorated by the radiant presence of their angel companion. And how could anyone ever again think there is such a thing as solitary confinement?

Scripture refers to angels often—more than three-hundred times. They usually appear as "ministering spirits sent to serve" (Heb 1:14), and their primary ministerial role is acting as messengers. In fact, the Greek word for angel, angelos, means messenger. The guardian angels who are assigned to us individually seem to have the main function of guarding and protecting us: "He will command his angels... to guard you in all your ways..." (Ps 91:11).

There is a class of evil spirits (fallen angels) known as "familiar spirits" (these are referred to in several places in the Old Testament). They are called "familiar" because they become closely acquainted with our weaknesses so as to attack us in those areas. Our guardian angels, too, become familiar with our weaknesses and strengths, but they are commissioned by God to protect, inspire, encourage, support, and pray for us.

The teaching about the existence of personal guardian angels (as distinguished from teachings about angels in general) is a doctrine of the Church that is classed as proxima fidei: a consistent and scripturally supported teaching that is not formally defined as dogma. The existence of guardian angels is affirmed by theological luminaries like St. Jerome and St. Thomas Aquinas, whose extensive writings on angels earned him the title "Angelic Doctor."

The most direct scriptural reference to such personally assigned angels is found in Jesus' words in Matthew 18:10, which are sandwiched between his remarks about childlike humility (perceiving one's own helplessness) and the helplessness of a straying sheep needing rescue: "See that you do not look down on any one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.”

Help for the helpless is provided by personally assigned angels, as Jesus indicates. Exemplified by the child that Jesus called into his presence, the helpless, lowly, or weak (children or adults) are called "little ones." In God's eyes, though, they are not little but great (Mt 18:4), and their greatness or nobility is highlighted by their being assigned personal angels who are constantly enraptured by the vision of God himself. Jesus' words – “any one of these" and "their angels” – indicate that these protectors are not assigned merely as overseers of groups but of individuals, that is, as personal guardian angels. Accordingly, the early Christians often spoke of an angel as being "his" or "her" angel (see Acts 12:15).

The Old Testament, too, presents angelic protection as extended not only to groups (see Exodus 23:20; Daniel 12:1; 2 Maccabees 11:6) but also to individuals (see Daniel 6:22). (Eventually, some Jewish rabbis also came to teach that every individual has a personal guardian angel.) The psalmist acknowledged some personalism in angelic protection, at least for himself, and hinted at it for everyone: "Those who plot my ruin... the angel of the Lord drives them away" (Ps 35:4-S); "This poor man called, and the Lord heard him..  The angel of the Lord encamps around [each of] those who fear him, and he delivers them" (Ps 34:6-7); and the passage that Satan quoted when he tempted Jesus, "He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways" (Ps 91:11; Mt 4:6).

These passages show guarding as a one-to-one function of the angels. Others present the angels' role of guiding: Abraham's servant is led to find just the right wife for his master's son (see Genesis 24:7); Hagar is given direction (see Genesis 16:7); Tobias is guided by the archangel Raphael (see Tobit 5:4) on a journey that leads to marriage and healing. Angels perform rescue operations (see Daniel 6:22; Acts 5:19; 12:7-11). They also provide encouragement in critical situations, as in the case o fPaul just before he was shipwrecked (see Acts 27:23).

Most of us have not had angelic apparitions like these. Our appreciation of the privilege of having a guardian angel comes from faith more often than from experience. Yet countless people have experienced miraculous protection by their guardian angel. Many have been helped by persons they suspected of angels in disguise—a possibility mentioned in Hebrews 13:2.

Does everyone have a guardian angel, or is it only the righteous who enjoy this protection? The question is debatable. St. Jerome and St. Basil held that serious sin drives away one's guardian angel, leaving sinners vulnerable to spiritual and perhaps even physical hurt in life's spiritual warfare. Although this is somewhat conjectural (and perhaps contrary to Jesus' remarks about indiscriminate beneficence to saint and sinner alike: see Matthew 5:45), there may be some basis for this view. God does withdraw many favors from those who disobey him (see Deuteronomy 28:15-68).

Psalm 91:9 promises angelic protection “if you make the Most High your dwelling." Psalm 34:7 says that "the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear [reverence] him.' And Hebrews 1:14 clearly states that angels are "sent to serve those who will inherit salvation." Although it is possible that God may send angels to protect those who will not inherit salvation, there is no scriptural indication that he does so.

Doesn't it seem unthinkable, perhaps even culpable, to ignore or neglect such an awesome, personalized gift from God? Just think for a moment of who these guardians are: part of God's myriads of angels, "mighty ones who do his bidding" (Ps 103:20), beings with a superlative intellect and incredible power. Of the nine angelic "choirs," or orders, referred to in various places in Scripture, our guardians belong to the order closest to the human level. As angels, they are lower than archangels, virtues, powers, principalities, dominations, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim. Yet their abilities and intelligence and holiness are inconceivably greater than ours. Having such an angelic companion is better than having a super-holy Superman as our private intercessor, servant, advisor, bodyguard, and friend!

How important, then, to cultivate devotion to our guardian angels. One helpful way of doing this, I have found, is to meditate on the personal aspect of God's promise in Psalm 91:11 (and surrounding verses): "He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways." By sending you such a customized gift, God is showing personal interest in you as an individual. He has selected a delegate to guard you "in all your ways” – in your ups and downs, in your waking and sleeping hours, when you're alone or with others, in your joys and in your sufferings, in your successes and your failures. No wonder St. Francis de Sales urges, "Make yourself familiar with angels and behold them frequently in spirit; without being seen, they are present with you."

Your appreciation of your guardian angel will reach its scintillating climax at your death. Then your guardian will take you by the hand to lead you to the arms of God while, as Shakespeare phrased it in Hamlet, "flights of angels sing thee to thy rest." And as your close personal friend who has known you better than anyone, your angel will rejoice along with you all eternity in the ineffable bliss of the vision of God.

Truly, those who believe this doctrine of guardian angels with all their heart are utterly transformed in time and for all eternity!

This excerpt is from the book The Art of Loving God by John H. Hampsch, C.M.F., originally published by Servant Publications, 1995. This and other of Fr. Hampsch's books and audio/visual materials can be purchased from Claretian Teaching Ministry, 20610 Manhattan Pl, #120, Torrance, CA 90501-1863. Phone 1-310-782-6408.