Tony Worner, our Leader of Formation, presents our Gospel Reflections this week and today reads from the Gospel of Matthew (18: 1-5, 10), in which Jesus says, ‘See that you never despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven are continually in the presence of my Father in heaven’. Afterwards, Tony shares a little about the memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels which we celebrate today.

Tony says, the memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels that we celebrate today did not become a universal feast until the latter part of the seventeenth century, when Pope Clement X placed it on the Roman Calendar.

Pope Leo XIII elevated the feast and emphasized its importance in the late nineteenth century. Around the time he did so, he also composed the “Saint Michael the Archangel” prayer and mandated that it be prayed at the end of every Mass.

The feast of the Archangels is celebrated on September 29, and a few days later, today, the memorial for all the guardian angels is celebrated. These two feasts emphasize the fact that God uses some angels for specific purposes that affect all people and that He uses guardian angels to care for each of our specific needs.

Tony says it is also an important recognition in our Catholic faith of the place of saints and angels that one of the last prayers after we have died is:

Saints of God, come to our aid!
Come to meet us, angels of the Lord!

May Christ, Who called us, take us to Himself;
may angels lead us to Abraham’s side.

Give us eternal rest, O Lord,
and may Your light shine upon us forever.

Angels of God … pray for us!