Feast of the Guardian Angels
October 2, 2010 by elliottmariac
Who among us hasn’t been at least a little inspired by the thought of angels taking charge over our welfare? Even secular people like the idea of angels, look at all the cards, plaques, mugs, and little sculptures at the nearby Hallmark store! Better yet, think about the omnipresence of angels in religious art everywhere.
Guardian Angels - V is for Victory
I just like to think about how these beings – well-attested to in the Bible and Church teachings – are really in the presence of the Lord and around us.
This past Wednesday, I met with my endocrinlogist. We worked through the following:
- The blood test that confirms Medullary Thyroid cancer was negative.
- This does not mean I do not have one of the three other forms of thyroid cancer, just not that one.
- Some of my birth family have enlarged, non-functioning thyroids with bi-lateral nodules – no cancer.
- Just because I have relatives with a similar condition doesn’t mean I don’t have cancer.
- Still, her thinking is moving toward “monitoring” instead of “surgery”.
- Thus I must consult with a second pathologist who will see if she concurs with the first one who raised the alert by reading the product of my biopsy as “neoplasms” where decent, benign cells should have been.
- If she does not concur, she is charged by the endocrinologist to do a second biopsy and read it to determine what she thinks. (This lady is a cyto-pathologist who has much experience in all things thyroid-related.)
Please pray for this process. I really appreciate the fact that our Creator has given his angels a charge to “guard me in all my ways.” See the reading from the Liturgy of the Hours below.
A sermon by St Bernard *
That they might guard you in all your ways |
He has given his angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways. Let them thank the Lord for his mercy; his wonderful works are for the children of men. Let them give thanks and say among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. O Lord, what is man that you have made yourself known to him, or why do you incline your heart to him? And you do incline your heart to him; you show him your care and your concern. Finally, you send your only Son and the grace of your Spirit, and promise him a vision of your countenance. And so, that nothing in heaven should be wanting in your concern for us, you send those blessed spirits to serve us, assigning them as our guardians and our teachers.
He has given his angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways. These words should fill you with respect, inspire devotion and instil confidence; respect for the presence of angels, devotion because of their loving service, and confidence because of their protection. And so the angels are here; they are at your side, they are with you, present on your behalf. They are here to protect you and to serve you. But even if it is God who has given them this charge, we must nonetheless be grateful to them for the great love with which they obey and come to help us in our great need.
So let us be devoted and grateful to such great protectors; let us return their love and honour them as much as we can and should. Yet all our love and honour must go to him, for it is from him that they receive all that makes them worthy of our love and respect.
We should then, my brothers, show our affection for the angels, for one day they will be our co-heirs just as here below they are our guardians and trustees appointed and set over us by the Father. We are God’s children although it does not seem so, because we are still but small children under guardians and trustees, and for the present little better than slaves.
Even though we are children and have a long, a very long and dangerous way to go, with such protectors what have we to fear? They who keep us in all our ways cannot be overpowered or led astray, much less lead us astray. They are loyal, prudent, powerful. Why then are we afraid? We have only to follow them, stay close to them, and we shall dwell under the protection of God’s heaven.
*[http://www.universalis.com/20101002/readings.htm]
You’re in my thoughts and prayers, Maria. The feast days at the beginning of October are some of my favorite ones. They remind me of our celestial prayer partners.
Poor roomie! So sorry to hear you are dealing with all of this. Perhaps you had a node on your larynx that didn’t want to harm your beautiful voice, so it just jumped onto your thyroid. After all, at our age now, we are going to be growing things, skin tags, age spots, etc. I pray it will be nothing harmful at all and your voice be forever wonderful!