Presentation: Angels and the Spiritual Life

Faith Formation presentation at St. Ann Catholic Church in Morganza, LA on October 1, 2018.

HWP: St. Gabriel the Archangel

Yesterday we celebrated the feast of the Annunciation, when the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Our Lady with that beautiful salutation and the good news of the Incarnation. In the Extraordinary Form calendar this celebration is preceded by the feast of the Archangel Gabriel. So in honor of this great messenger of God who first bore the news of the Salvation to come, we offer this...

Prayer to St. Gabriel the Archangel

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, I venerate you as the Angel of the Incarnation, because God specially appointed you to bear the messages concerning the God-Man to Daniel, Zechariah, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Give me a very tender and devoted love for the Incarnate Word and his Blessed Mother more like your own. I venerate you also as the "Strength from God" because you are the giver of God's strength, consoler and comforter chosen to strengthen God's faithful and teach them important truths. I ask for the grace of a special power of the will to strive for holiness of life. Steady my resolutions; renew my courage; comfort and console me in the problems, trials and sufferings of daily living, as you consoled our Savior in his agony and Mary in her sorrows and Joseph in his trials. I put my confidence in you. Saint Gabriel I ask you especially for this favor: (mention your request). Through your earnest love for the Son of God made man and for his Blessed Mother I beg of you, intercede for me that my request may be granted, if it be God's holy will. Pray for us, Saint Gabriel the Archangel, that we may be worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.

Prayer taken from http://www.2heartsnetwork.org/Gabriel.htm.

HWP: Guardian Angels

Today is the feast of the Guardian Angels, those great celestial beings who are constantly keeping watch over us as they simultaneously behold the face of God. Their existence is but one more proof of God's infinite love for each one of us. As we celebrate them today, we have also the opportunity to thank them for their loving care for us and their perpetual presence. Let us also invoke their guidance, mindful that they desire our good and eternal glory in God:

Prayer to One's Guardian Angel

 

Angel of God, my guardian dear,

to whom God's love commits me here,

ever this day be at my side

to light and guard,

rule and guide.

Amen.

Guardian Angel Prayer

Guardian Angel by Pietro da Cortona

In honor of the Feast of the Guardian Angels, which we celebrate today, here is a beautiful prayer to our guardian angel composed by Fr. John Hardon, S.J.:

My guardian angel, you always behold the Holy Trinity. You are deeply loved by the divine Majesty. You know how desperately I need the grace of God to know what He wants me to do and the strength I need to surrender my stubborn will to His divine will. How I need your powerful intercession with Almighty God. I trust you will hear my prayer and I am confident that with your help I will live my life as a sacrifice of myself to God and thus merit to join you in that celestial glory where you are waiting for me.

In particular, dear angel of God, I ask for the grace to repent of my sin this day and every day. You love God so deeply becuase you understand His love so completely. Ask Our Lord to give me, a repentant sinner, something of your great love for Him, so that I may one day join you in heavenly glory. Our Lord promised that there will be great joy among the angels of God over one sinner who repents. May I give you and your fellow angels something of this joy because of my own generous repentance for my sins. Amen.

 

Read more of Fr. Hardon's writings about the angels HERE.