How do Catholics speak with their Guardian angels?
Upvote:5
Interaction with a guardian angel will vary from person to person because it takes on the character of a spiritual encounter. There is some guidance in the Catechism that may help answer your question.
TL:DR; The most likely way to speak with your guardian angel is through prayer. With the mind? Yes. With the voice? Yes. In other ways? Yes.
I'll explain how I arrive at that conclusion. (Prayer need not be formal. It can be informal communication of a prayerful nature).
On the nature of Angels
In (CCC 329) St Augustine is called upon to provide insight:
'Angel' is the name of their office, not of their nature. If you seek the name of their nature, it is 'spirit'; if you seek the name of their office, it is 'angel': from what they are, 'spirit', from what they do, 'angel.'"
In the same article, the angels' role, to include some helpful guidance from Jesus:
With their whole beings the angels are servants and messengers of God. Because they "always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven" they are the "mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word". (Matthew 18:10; Psalm 103)
A few articles down, we find this heading ...
The angels in the Life of the Church
CCC 334-336 explains it with reasonable brevity.
... the whole life of the Church benefits from the mysterious and powerful help of angels. In her liturgy, the Church joins with the angels to adore the thrice-holy God. She invokes their assistance (in the Roman Canon's Supplices te rogamus . . .{"Almighty God, we pray that your angel..."}; in the funeral liturgy's In Paradisum deducant te angeli. . .{"May the angels lead you into Paradise. . ."}). Moreover, in the "Cherubic Hymn" of the Byzantine Liturgy, she celebrates the memory of certain angels more particularly (St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, and the guardian angels). From infancy to death human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession.1 "Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life."2
How to communicate
- Collectively, the church communicates with the angels through prayer.
Personally, any of the faithful can communicate to angels in prayer. A classic example is this prayer to St Michael.
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan, and all the evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
Through our actions. The church believes that the guardian angel stands "beside each believer" -- the implication is that the angel is aware of what the believer they have the care of is doing. Not too far of a reach, if you already accept as a matter of faith that there are angels, and that we each have a guardian angel.
Through personal prayer. If the Church can collectively communicate with the angel through prayer, a single member of the faithful can do the same. Since a guardian angel of the same nature as any other angel, prayer will work.
Through conversation. Be it silent and mental, or verbal/spoken communication, a key to believing that we can communicate with our guardian angel is linked to their aforementioned capacity for intercession. Prayers for intercession are very common forms of prayer. Given that the angel is near by, simple prayer, or a simple request prayerful or otherwise, should be effective.
Isn't communication a two way street?
Yes. How to listen, how to learn to listen, and how to pick up cues of response to prayer (be it angelic response or from higher authority) is one of the places where spiritual experience will vary. You may hear your angel's voice. I may only be provided signs and portents. Another person may see something in particular.
Follow up on St Augustine: since the nature of the angel is of spirit, encounters with angels take on a spiritual character. A common form of spiritual encounter is through prayer, although there are other forms.
What is prayer? From CCC 2558:
For me, prayer is a surge of the heart;
it is a simple look turned toward heaven,
it is a cry of recognition and of love,
embracing both trial and joy.
~ St. Therese of Lisieux, Manuscrits autobiographiques
To sum up all of the above
The most likely way to communicate with one's guardian angel is through prayer. It isn't the only way, but based on the church's teaching on guardian angels and angels in general, it seems to simplest way to do it. To a certain extent it probably doesn't matter, since the guardian angel is aware of what we do and what we need.
If the desire to communicate arises ... communicate.
1 Matthew 18:10; ⇒ Luke 16:22; ⇒ Psalms 34:7; 1:10-13; ⇒ Job 33:23-24; ⇒ Zecharaiah 1:12
2 St. Basil, Eunomium III, I: PG 29, 656B.
More post
- 📝 What is Paul saying in Romans 7:15 - 7:25?
- 📝 Is this about 'sehnsucht'; in which case, can God be Pleasure manifest or is he a being who is full of pleasure?
- 📝 Is Jesus, God the Father's representation? Is He His Avatar?
- 📝 How many kinds of Catholics are there?
- 📝 Is the "sinner's prayer" important for salvation and why?
- 📝 How do dispensationalists understand the statements that God fulfilled all his promises to Israel in Joshua 21 and 23?
- 📝 Are Catholics married in a civil ceremony still permitted to receive communion?
- 📝 According to the Catholic Church, what did Jesus mean by saying “Least of these commandments "?
- 📝 What is the true origin of the quotation, attributed to St Augustine, beginning, 'To fall in love with God is the greatest of romances'?
- 📝 What was the significance of Jesus' instructions to the disciples at Transfiguration?
- 📝 Lutheranism: "Pastor" or "Priest"?
- 📝 How does the essence–energies distinction differ from the ontological/economic views of God?
- 📝 Is there an explanation in Catholicism as to why it was the Son and not the others of the Blessed Trinity to become man and be crucified for our sake?
- 📝 At what age and how do young Catholics know or be notified that they have committed a mortal sin or a venial sin?
- 📝 What prominent Christian thinkers (if any) held to polygenism and if so how did these thinkers view original sin?
- 📝 How Did Ussher Determine That the World Began on "Sunday Evening, October 23, 4004 B.C."?
- 📝 What is the Biblical support for Hell as a singular concept?
- 📝 If you promise or swear to do something evil or sinful, do you have an obligation to fulfill that promise?
- 📝 What do Christianity and Judaism have in common?
- 📝 Destruction of 50% of the planet is not end of the world?
- 📝 What is the difference between Calvinist "nature" and "nature" in the sense of the Hypostatic union?
- 📝 What is to be understood by Mary being the "mother of the church"?
- 📝 Are modern Amish much more dissimilar from society than the original generations of Amish?
- 📝 Seeking full text of St. John Chrysostom's homily "On the Cemetery's Name and the Cross"
- 📝 Do any Christianity denominations really offer something for addiction problems specifically?
- 📝 Who were Jannes and Jambres?
- 📝 What is the basis for the Roman Catholic teaching regarding the Sin of Presumption?
- 📝 Why did God refer to Jesus Christ as a tree in Isaiah 11:1?
- 📝 Did Thomas Merton write "I see no contradiction between Buddhism and Christianity" ? If so, in which writing?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for "March for Jesus" or "Jesus Day"?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How do Catholics speak with their Guardian angels?
- 📝 How do Catholics and Eastern Orthodox justify their clergy praying with those big hats on their heads?
- 📝 How would Reformed Christians deal with h*m*sexual marriage of individuals prior to their conversion to Christianity?
- 📝 How do Catholics reconcile Christ's intercessory prayer with the doctrine of the Trinity?
- 📝 How do Christians who reject pre-fall death reconcile their views with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event (66 million years ago)?
- 📝 How does 1 John 2:19 fit with the teaching that Christians can lose their salvation
- 📝 How do Jehovah's Witnesses explain John 8:58-59 in a way that accords with their doctrine?
- 📝 How do Catholics reconcile the Immaculate Conception with Romans 3:23?
- 📝 How do evangelical universalists reconcile their position with the designation for Judas that it would be better if he had never been born?
- 📝 How does the doctrine of British Baptists compare with their American cousins?
- 📝 How do Roman Catholics reconcile Acts 15:20 with transubstantiation?
- 📝 How do Catholics deal with prophecies of future perpetual animal sacrifice?
- 📝 How do Christians reconcile Deuteronomy 13:1-4 with their belief in the abrogation of the Mosaic law?
- 📝 How do Catholics reconcile a metaphorical Adam and Eve with Original Sin
- 📝 How do Roman Catholics reconcile the apocalyptic sayings of Jesus with his not having returned?
- 📝 How do the Jehovah's witnesses reconcile Isaiah 44:24 with their belief that Jesus is the only direct creation of God?
- 📝 How do believers in the Great Apostasy reconcile their views with Matthew 16:18?
- 📝 How would Catholics respond to the theory that Mary was a surrogate mother that had no DNA in common with Jesus?
- 📝 How do Jehovah’s Witnesses support their belief that only 144,000 persons can be in the New Covenant and go to heaven, there to rule with Christ Jesus
- 📝 How do Traditional Latin Mass going Catholics usually prepare and receive their sacraments of initiation?
- 📝 How do Trinitarians deal with imbalances in their relationship with each Person of the Trinity?
- 📝 How do 'soul sleep' adherents explain reports of personal experiences with deceased saints, friends and relatives by Catholics and other Christians?
- 📝 How do Catholics assert certain Traditions being equal with Scripture when Scripture never says tradition can be of equal authority?
- 📝 Why do some traditional Catholics choose Confirmation in the Extraordinary Form over going with their parish Confirmation?
- 📝 How do Roman Catholics explain their change in Eschatology?
- 📝 How do Christians who subscribe to the "religion vs. relationship" dichotomy make sure that their own relationship with God is genuine?
- 📝 How do proponents of eternal conscious torment/separation reconcile their beliefs with Luke 13:3, 5?
- 📝 How do Protestants reconcile their confession of the Athanasian Creed with sola scriptura?
- 📝 How do Christians who think animals have only existed for <7,000 years on Earth reconcile their views with Pleistocene saber-toothed tigers?
- 📝 How does the LDS Church reconcile their understanding of the "Godhead" which is three beings/three gods with the Bible stating there is only one God?