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Some people try to name their angel but I think in most cases that can be an exercise in self-love and vanity. The angel names we dream up are often too romantic or even silly, while the images of our angels we concoct often reflect our own vain attachments to natural goods - beauty and grace - or sentimentality. Of course there is nothing wrong for us to image them - artists have done so for centuries. Some saints were actually told the names of their angel's - but that type of information (revelation) is always perceived according to the understanding of those so gifted.
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Anyway - I prefer to think of my angel as invisible and indefinable... but always present. As Scripture tells us, they in turn "always look upon the face of God": so just think how contemplative we become by uniting our prayer to theirs throughout the day. I find that comforting.
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Happy feast day my angel.
I promised myself I'd quit pestering you. I failed again.
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I asked God to fire my angel because I thought he did a lousy job of protecting me as a child. I asked for a new one - a more competent one. So now I don't know if I have one or two. I'd like to think I have two. One who works and one who doesn't. :(
I'm kidding some what- but yes I'm still a little bitter. I believe sometimes God tells them to sit on their hands. Which in truth must be painful for them.
belinda, dear, you probably have three...don't worry...angels have "tough skin"...and God has even "tougher"!!
ReplyDeleteHappy Feast Mr. Terry and y'all...
I, also, just love this feast of the Guardian Angels...I have been the recipient of angelic care in several "close calls"...one just recently when a trailer came unhitched from a truck going who-knows-how-fast on the interstate...it could have come crashing into my windshield, which would have probably pulverized me...but it didn't, praise GOD!I just said, "Oh, dear GOD!!"...couldn't even get out an "act of contrition"...thank you Guardian Angel...I love you so much!
"..they in turn "always look upon the face of God": so just think how contemplative we become by uniting our prayer to theirs throughout the day. I find that comforting."
ReplyDeleteI find that comforting, too, Terry.
My guardian angel has a name. I know it's a nickname, I probably couldn't pronounce her/his real name! It just kind of happened.
I make a point of praying to my angel on the way to work each morning. It is still dark, and I have a horror of hitting a jogger or biker (seems like there are a lot of them out there at that time).
Belinda, I hear what you're saying. Why do we get protected from some situations and not others, especially when it's something really harmful? If anyone figures it out, I hope they tell me.
MelodyK: In my humble opinion, God allows things to happen to us for various reasons: purification, an opportunity for further trust, and to be honest, to identify and know what it is to suffer with those who go through so much awful experiences in this life; if we didn't suffer sometimes, how could we ever be compassionate, empathetic or even sensitive to the horrid suffering so many undergo?
ReplyDeleteJust my opinion.
Melody, it made me a more compassionate person and I believe a better mother. When God allows something bad to happen he sends something wonderful in the place of the hole or damage that's left behind. Himself.
ReplyDeleteBelinda: I can relate but, astonishingly, I never felt bitter about some of the ways I was mistreated. I just realized I forgave people for that but I can't forgive my neighbors for being general pains in the keister. Maybe I just had a moment of revelation.
ReplyDeleteMy angel plays canasta with Adoro's.
Actually we are not supposed to name our angels. I gave mine a nickname a number of years ago and a woman told me I shouldn't. I didn't believe her so she dragged me into a theology library, pulled out a large volume of the original Catholic Encyclopedia and showed me all the reasons why one shouldn't name their angel. It was convincing enough, but I still asked a wise old priest who just said it wasn't a good idea. I don't have the patience to search through the CE online edition to find the quotes, but they are in there.
ReplyDeleteThis subject recently came up on another forum:
http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=498635
Happy Guardian Angels Day, regardless!
Good thing G.A.'s aren't unionized - mine would have walked years ago.
ReplyDeleteJust a note...
ReplyDeleteNaming angels is something which is discouraged in the catechesis offered by the Holy See in it's Direction on Popular Piety in the Liturgy
217. Popular devotion to the Holy Angels, which is legitimate and good, can, however, also give rise to possible deviations:
when, as sometimes can happen, the faithful are taken by the idea that the world is subject to demiurgical struggles, or an incessant battle between good and evil spirits, or Angels and daemons, in which man is left at the mercy of superior forces and over which he is helpless; such cosmologies bear little relation to the true Gospel vision of the struggle to overcome the Devil, which requires moral commitment, a fundamental option for the Gospel, humility and prayer;
when the daily events of life, which have nothing or little to do with our progressive maturing on the journey towards Christ are read schematically or simplistically, indeed childishly, so as to ascribe all setbacks to the Devil and all success to the Guardian Angels. The practice of assigning names to the Holy Angels should be discouraged, except in the cases of Gabriel, Raphael and Michael whose names are contained in Holy Scripture.
Cathy, I'm not bitter with people. People make mistakes when they put themselves first. I feel sorry for people who allow themselves to be duped into mortal sin or who are held captive by their sinful desires.
ReplyDeleteBut angels aren't supposed to make mistakes. There is no excuse for poor guardianship -unless they were doing what they were told to do in the first place which I believe was the case.
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I've discovered from blogging that the "Jesus and me" picture is broader, deeper, and richer than I had imagined. It includes Saints, angels, blessed mother and bloggers.
I still have a lot to learn.
Off topic--
ReplyDeleteBut please dear prayer warriors pray for the daughter of my worker..her name is Leana.
She has had trouble in the past carrying babies to term...she went into labor early and delivered the baby at 36 weeks...baby is in ICU...the premature labor damaged Leana's heart, and now she is in a medically induced coma until she can get heart transplant tissue.
My coworker Sue is just beside herself...Leana also has another small child that Sue will be caring for. And of course the ever present concern as to how all the medical bills will get paid.
Prayers please all around...they are Catholic although Leana is not married.
God bless you all... Sara
Diane - thanks for the catechesis - I'm so fortunate to have had that intuition only to be confirmed by Church teaching.
ReplyDeleteSara - prayers for your friend.
Diane - I also removed the misinformation regarding 'it may be okay to name an angel'. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteI pretty much ignored angels all of my adult life up until about a year ago when I started saying the St. Michael prayer and the Guardian Angel prayer.
ReplyDeleteMy spiritual life has gotten better, I believe because I regularly invoke angels.
But I still have a long way go on my spiritual journey. And I need lots of help.
Ray - you probably don't know this but you are pretty much an angel yourself - considering what you do for others - not just at the Vet's home either. God bless you.
ReplyDeleteTerry, if you got out more, you'd know me more. I'm not remotely like an angel. What I do, I do as much as anything out of guilt, gratitude and boredom.
ReplyDeleteI've got a lot to make up for.
Don't we all, Ray...I had a friend who once told me that my guardian angel had a hernia from all the heavy lifting done on my behalf...
ReplyDeleteCredo: "Heavy Lifting"
ReplyDeleteYup!