Today as we celebrate the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels, Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Matthew (18: 1-5, 10) in which the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Fr Paul says, the doctrine that every individual soul has a guardian angel has never been defined by the Church as far as he knows, but it has always been in the mind of the Church.  St Jerome and St Basil have expressed this.  Angels are mentioned in the holy scriptures. Fr Paul notes that our Gospel today is one example, Jesus telling the disciples that every child has a guardian angel and that angel is continually in the present of God the Father.

This feast of the Holy Guardian Angels used to be celebrated on the feast of the Archangels, which we celebrated a few days ago, but that changed about the 16th Century. The beauty of this feast is that it reminds us that God cares for each of us, individually. Each of us has an angel of our very own, looking after us and who is continually in the presence of God, the Father.

So, today especially, Fr Paul says we pray that our Holy Guardian Angels watch over us, guard us, protect us, love us and, most importantly, pray for us.