Angels Surround Us

(St. Thomas Beckett Church, Veneta, Oregon)

Today is the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. Not only does each one of us have our own personal angel, given to us by God at our birth, but there are angels everywhere, performing services to God and to us. The angel statues shown above remind us how the sanctuary is filled with angels during Mass and Benediction, and how at any moment, in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament, there are countless angels adoring Our Lord.

Remember the Savior's rebuke to Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane:

"Put up again thy sword into its place: for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot ask my Father, and he will give me presently more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matthew 26: 52-53)

A Roman legion contained 5,000-6,000 soldiers. So Our Lord told Peter that in the blink of an eye, He could ask for 60,000 angels and they'd be there to defend Him from His captors. But it was not God's Will that this happen. So although the angels are all around us, it is not always God's Will that we be saved from everything that seems to be negative.

But it is a great comfort to know that God's messengers are here...whispering inspirations to us, putting a protecting arm about us, carrying messages from God to us, and carrying our prayers back to God.

Fr. Paul O'Sullivan, O.P., writes in his short book, All About the Angels, from 1945:

"Millions and millions of Angels fill the Heavens, ministering unto God, but millions and millions of Angels are also here on Earth, ministering unto us. They are in our midst around us, about us, everywhere. Their activity in our regard is unceasing every day and every moment of the day, though we do not see them nor even suspect their presence nor feel their influence. They are watching over us with infinite care and love. Were it not for their ever vigilant protection, the history of the world would be far different, far more calamitous than it has been....God has given us into their charge: 'For He has given His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. In their hands they shall bear thee up lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.' (Psalm 90)"

 (St. Thomas Beckett Church, Veneta, Oregon)