Guardian Angels Aren’t Just for Children

Angel of God, my guardian dear to whom God’s love commits me here. Ever this day be at my side, to light, to guard, to rule, and guide. Amen

The Guardian Angel Prayer

My First Prayer
I feel like when you’re a child, angels are cute and magical, like fairytale creatures. We would want to dress up as them and pretended to be them. I didn’t just think I could be an angel when I went to Heaven, I wanted to be an angel so badly. In my First Holy Communion classes, we named our guardian angels and drew a picture of what they looked like to us. (I learned later that we really shouldn’t do that because angels already have names and we don’t know what they look like.)

I prayed the guardian angel prayer every night and asked for its help when I was little. That prayer was probably the first one that I learned to pray. It was comforting to know that my guardian angel was protecting me, and I thought about my angel with, for lack of better terms, childlike wonder.

Growing Out of Guardian Angels
After a while, it seemed like praying the guardian angel prayer and being slightly obsessed with having your own personal angel was just for kids. When I outgrew coloring, playing dress-up, and having tea parties, I must have outgrown my guardian angel too. I regret to say that I sort of forgot about my guardian angel for a chunk of my life, but fortunately, my guardian angel never forgot about me.

There were so many times in my life when I could tell God was looking out for me. Looking back on those occasions, I think He sent my guardian angel to protect me. Throughout my years of dance, I never had a major injury. I had survivors guilt when I would see dancers with torn ACLs, concussions, and more while I would only have a few bruises. Growing up Catholic in today’s society isn’t easy, and there were times when I ran into someone or read or watched something that contradicted my faith. Instead of giving in, I’d dismiss it knowing that I have the truth in Jesus Christ and His Church. Again, I felt a twinge of survivors guilt seeing how I kept my faith while others tragically didn’t.

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Reuniting with my Guardian Angel
I typically think to pray to God the Father, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, or ask Mary or the Saints for help and prayers before I think of my guardian angel. It wasn’t until college when I started thinking about my guardian angel again. I learned that angels are wise, so when you study, you can invoke your guardian angel to help you. I took the small step of rebuilding my relationship with my guardian angel by asking it to help me study for my exams. I honestly didn’t really talk to my guardian angel much other than that. Regardless, I knew that I still had somewhat of a relationship with my guardian angel. Even if I didn’t talk to it or ask for its help often, I knew that it was always protecting me. I might have only asked for help with my studies, but in that way, I still kept my guardian angel close.

Now I’m out of college and a “full-time adult.” Although I don’t talk to my guardian angel as often as I’d like to, I can tell that it’s keeping me safe. I genuinely hope that when I get to Heaven, I can ask it what it was like to look out for me all of those years. I can only imagine what it’ll say about what it was like when I fell and scraped my arm in Cathedral Falls. Because today is the Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels, I encourage you to say the Guardian Angel Prayer. As childish as you might feel praying this prayer, you’re never too old to ask your guardian angel to guide and protect you.

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