Exodus 23:20-23 / Matthew 18:1-5, 10
Today the Church celebrates a very intimate and enduring dimension of our spiritual lives and it involves us directly.
Today we are reminded that there are invisible spiritual beings around us and the closest to us is our Guardian Angel.
We believe that each of us, Christian or not, has a Guardian Angel, and that is an ancient belief and it has long been accepted by the Church.
The 1st reading attested to this when God said to Israel that He will send an angel before them to guard them as they go and bring them to the place He had prepared for them.
If that sounded too general, then what Jesus said in the gospel is certainly more than obvious and more specific.
Jesus said that the angels of the little ones are continually in the presence of God the Father in heaven.
And we are, no doubt, those "little ones" of the kingdom, as long as we are humble enough to accept the presence of our Guardian Angels around us and to say a short little prayer to him always.
As God said in the 1st reading about the angel He is sending - Give him reverence and listen to all that he says. Offer him no defiance ... listen carefully to his voice and do all that I say. My angel will go before you.
In order to feel the promptings of our Guardian Angel, let us pray to him first and the Church has a prayer for the Guardian Angel.
And in the end, may we hear the voice of our Guardian Angels and may they lead us into paradise of God's presence in heaven.