@fathershane / fathershane.tumblr.com
Are all angels male? We don't see any women angels in the bible, do we?
Believe it or not, none of the angels are male. They don't have genders like we do. They're far too awesome and powerful to "just" be male or "just" be female...
We give names like "Michael" and "Gabriel" and "Raphael" to men, but maybe that's because we have limited imaginations! The French are ahead of us on this one... "Michelle," "Gabrielle"...
God bless you!
- Father Shane
(via imgTumble)
Still one of the greatest photos of all time.
Another one by one of the seminarians where I live. Perfect for today!
If Devils Tempt Us, Then What Do Guardian Angels Do?
Oh, and why does God need angels in the first place? Answers to those and more questions here.
Hello, Father! I have a question about Guardian Angels. Whenever I pray while I drive (which is apparently not recommended by my peers but I love sharing my driving time with Jesus), I toss in the Guardian Angel prayer in there sometimes... and I just started wondering what they're there for? I looked through yer archives and found our the appropriate way to form a relationship with one's guardian angel... But how exactly do they "guide" us?
I definitely recommend that you pray when you drive! So does the Bible (Ephesians 6:18). But use different types of prayer for different situations. Sorry to overrule your friends. :-)
Here's a standard version of the Guardian Angel prayer (though there are different translations of the same):
Angel sent by God to guide me,Be my light and walk beside me.Be my guardian and protect me,On the paths of life direct me.
"Guide" isn't really a very close translation. That line is actually "Angele Dei, qui custos es mei." The "guide" part is coming from the word "custos," which means "guardian" more than anything. It's reminiscent of Psalm 91:11: "For he commands his angels with regard to you, to guard you wherever you go." (Of course, the core verse for all this is Matthew 18:10.)
Someone once told me that he thinks it's like "reverse temptation": If devils (evil angels) can tempt us, the angels of God (good angels) can inspire us with good and holy thoughts.
More than anything, the angels are at our service -- counterintuitive, but in God's Providence it's true -- like they served Jesus in his humanity (Mark 1:13). But they can only guard us and guide us to the extent that we allow ourselves to be guided, sort of like asking anyone else to be your guide or mentor or spiritual director.
Make any sense? God bless you!
- Father Shane
A really creative twist on "Letter 7" of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters, put together by a friend of mine.
See what you think! The guardian angel is the best.
Hello Father Shane! This may be a.. weird question lol, but how do I get to know my guardian angel? I want to build a relationship with them, and I want to become more comfortable with knowing them. I was protestant before I recently became Catholic, so I would like to know more about guardian angels, and mine in particular! Thank you in advance! God bless! :)
A fascinating question!
One of the traditional routes in Catholic spirituality has been to pray the prayer to the guardian angel on a regular basis. In my religious order, we traditionally pray it after we pray the Angelus (3 times daily).
Of course you can also pray spontaneously to your guardian angel. Just say little things every once in a while, with a lot of trust. And sometimes -- in the case of many saints it's happened quite notably -- it can blossom into a really neat relationship. Not in the sense that you're putting your guardian angel before God or making him/her (angels don't have genders) into a sort of demigod, but just another good friend in the Church, and another fellow worshiper of God Almighty. (Doubts? Matthew 18:10... Revelation 12:7...)
A priest was just recounting to me this evening that Padre Pio once saw Saint Michael present in one of the moments when Padre Pio was being tormented by the devil, but Saint Michael stood idly by. "Why didn't you help me?" Padre Pio remonstrated with him afterwards. "You didn't ask," he was told.
Hmmmm.
God bless!
- Father Shane
