02 October 2008

Our Guardian Angels

Have you ever found it difficult to pray for someone with whom you have difficulty getting along in everyday life? Sometimes it is easier to commend people to the Lord in prayer when we feel kindly disposed toward them. It can be difficult to pray for someone who has hurt us or rejected us. Perhaps, the next time this happens, we might try to pray to the guardian angel of the person for whom we are struggling to pray. Each of us has a guardian angel who is there to protect us and guide us. It can be a bit easier for our clay feet and sometimes-delicate hearts to pray to the angel of a person than to pray for the person himself. Over time, one of the fruits of our prayer may be that we realize one day -- without ever knowing exactly when it happend -- that we are praying, without hesitation, for someone who has hurt us or offended us.

St. Francis de Sales referred frequently to angels in his spiritual writings and especially in some of his meditations. We share here a short exhortation from his writings on saints and angels:

"Seek to be familiar with the Angels; learn to realize that they are continually present, although invisible. Specially love and revere the Guardian Angel of the Diocese in which you live, those of the friends who surround you, and your own. Commune with them frequently, join in their songs of praise, and seek their protection and help in all you do, spiritual or temporal."
St. Francis de Sales

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