This leads us to a conclusion that should fill our hearts with wonder and gratitude. Thus, they concluded, an angel is wherever the thing is that the angel is thinking about or loving.
That includes willing another person’s good - in other words, loving them. So, even though they don’t have bodies that can move from place to place, they have intellects and wills that “move” when they think about certain things and will certain things. Their line of thinking went something like this: Angels are spirits, which means they are essentially beings of intellect and a will - that is, they can think and they can choose. So they studied, thought, discussed, and reasoned it out. The medieval philosophers and theologians wondered about this, too. While doing research for a paper one day, I discovered I wasn’t the only one with this question. How can an angel be anywhere, let alone “at my side”? Is this just a pleasant thought, a stroke of sentimentality? Guardian angel, German postcard, 1900. If my body is in California, then I’m in California, and not Idaho, Guam, or Poland. Here’s a recent one: Have you ever wondered when you pray for your guardian angel to “ever be at my side,” just how that works? With us, since we’re composed of both body and soul, we are “at” whatever place our bodies are.
#Catholic guardian angel prayer cracked
And while you might think the answers I’d find would be as dry as the cracked binding on my book, quite often instead they lead to illuminating insights.
I’ll wonder things like, “Why would we pray ‘lead us not into temptation’? Would God even do that in the first place?” Since I was a graduate student in theology and philosophy, my tendency in those moments is to drop my prayer and pick up a book, hoping to find an answer. Those classic prayers often can just wash over me, but occasionally something in them grabs hold of me, pressing for further attention. Many times, though, I start to wonder about the words I am praying. Other times it’s tomorrow’s worries that barge in. Different things will pop up to derail me. This hardly makes me unique - even many of the great saints confessed to this struggle, so at least I am in good company.
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