Fathers of the Church clarify Guardian Angels

[Michie]

Way more than "friendly spirits," guardian angels are well explained by 2,000 years of Church teaching.​

Our belief in Guardian Angels is one of the greatest treasures of the Catholic faith but also one of our big stumbling blocks.

Guardian Angels are a great treasure because everybody loves the idea of angels looking out for us — and people of all times and places, from ancient times to today, have intuited that friendly spirits are aiding them. They are also one of our greatest stumbling blocks, because they are easy to disbelieve, since you can’t see them and their actions rarely rise to the level of miraculous.

But the greatest thinkers in the Church and the great figures of the Old Testament, along with the Psalms and the teaching of the Church, all agree with Jesus that we each have a guardian angel.


After reading the late Cardinal Jean Danielou’s book The Angels and their Mission, I think both our delight in the angels and our disbelief in them need to be corrected a little bit. Danielou surveys what the Fathers of the Church teach about angels, and their answers are eye-opening.

First, the names the Fathers of the Church give the guardian angels clarify them.​

Continued below.

Fathers of the Church clarify Guardian Angels

Way more than "friendly spirits," guardian angels are well explained by 2,000 years of Church teaching.

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