Do you ask your Guardian Angel to intercede for you? Have you given your Guardian Angel a name? I must admit I’ve been ignoring mine until recently. Fortunately the Church has a feast day for our Guardian Angels on October 2nd, where we can be reminded of their presence and helpful role in our lives.
The Catholic Church does not have a defined doctrine on Guardian Angels, but as St. Jerome states, the belief that every soul has a Guardian Angel is the “mind of the Church”. The Bible has several passages that support Guardian Angels such as Matthew 18:10 "See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven." Or Hebrews 1:14 “Are they (angels) not all ministering spirits sent to serve, for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?"
What exactly does our Guardian Angel do? If we all have an angel personally assigned to guard us, then there must be something pretty harmful trying to get us. Indeed there is. The Church teaches that there is a hierarchy of angels, and that at some point before time began, various angels of different hierarchies chose to disobey God. These are the fallen angels. Satan is the head fallen angel and demons are the other fallen angels of different lower hierarchies.
I’ve often wondered why the fallen angels would bother attacking humans and try to make us fall like they did. Why aren’t they content with their own evil ways by themselves? But upon thinking about the nature of evil, I realize that it leads to the need for domination, power, use, abuse, unhappiness, and like the old adage says, misery loves company.
Make no mistake; the fallen angels are smarter than we are and they want to lure us down their path to claim us as a hunting prize. Thanks be to God that He has conquered evil through Jesus Christ and that He has given us many means to protect us from evil, including our Guardian Angels.
St. Michael the Archangel and our Guardian Angels, defend us in battle.
God bless,
Daniel
The question of "naming Guardian Angels" came up in the EWTN Q&A a while back.
Apparently you really should not be trying to "name" your Guardian Angel as it represents trying to hold authority over them. There were some comparisons about how Jesus asked Demons what their names were but I don't have the time to really dive into the subject right now.
I just wanted to point out that it may be erroneous to encourage such behavior.
Thanks!
Thanks Spacepiston.
If you have the time, I'd be interested to know.
Daniel
Daniel,
I included some info that changed my mind about the practice of naming your Guardian Angel. I was surprised myself because I once thought it a pious practice too. Now I feel more respect is shown to my Guardian Angel by heeding the following advice:
__________________________________________________
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius, O.L.S.M. on March 12, 2001
Dear Mrs Mary:
I thank you for your story for it so beautifully illustrates why we SHOULD NOT ask our guardian angel for his name. This is a common and dangerous practice. It should never be done.
Some people even have the arrogance of "naming" their angel. Our angels are not our pets, for pete sake. "Naming" an angel is the height of arrogance albeit unintended. It is misguided devotion. Our angels have been in existance since the beginning of time. They already have a name and how dare we go "naming" them. How would we like it if someone just started naming us whatever they pleased?
As to praying and asking the angel to reveal his name to you, although it lacks the shear arrogance of "naming" an angel, it is still dangerous and totally unnecessary. The danger lies in that we can easily be deceived. VERY EASILY.
If you are Catholic you MUST believe in a real satan and in real demons. It is part of the Catholic teaching. I can assure you that devils do in fact exist and that it is not unusual for a devil to try to trip up an unsuspecting soul. That is why St. Paul tells us to be on guard for hte devil is like a roaring lion waiting to devoir someone.
__________________________________________________
Popular devotion to the holy angels, which is legitimate and good, can, however, also give rise to possible deviations ... [such as the] practice of assigning names to the holy angels [which] should be discouraged, except in the cases of Gabriel, Raphael, and Michael whose names are contained in Holy Scripture (Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy 217).
__________________________________________________
Naming guardian angels
Another New Age practice which has made its way into the Catholic Church is naming your guardian angel. I have heard some people speak of it as if it were a necessary thing to name your angel, and as if it were an age-old practice. It is in fact a New Age fad, never practised or taught by a single Pope or Saint or any notable writer in the whole history of the Church.
The Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy issued in 2002 by the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship says, "The practice of assigning names to the holy angels should be discouraged except in the cases of Gabriel, Raphael and Michael whose names are contained in Holy Scripture" (n. 217).
Behind it is a desire to tame and control the spirit world. It is disordered to name your angel: the higher names the lower, not the other way around. Parents name their children, not vice versa. We are entrusted to our guardian angels; they are not entrusted to us. I fear that some people, in their mind, have turned their angel into some human friend or pet.
In all these matters, there is no better advice than that of St Paul in 2 Thess 2:15: "Stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us". Neither subtract from nor add to the teaching of the Church. Many novelties are really the re-appearance of ancient gnostic errors parading as piety, for as St Paul also warns (2 Cor 11:14), "even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light".
Fr Peter Joseph is serving as Chancellor for the Maronite Diocese of Australia for the next three years.
Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 16 No 2 (March 2003), p. 12
__________________________________________________
re: naming guardian angels
Question from on 01-25-2006:
Dear Fr. Levis: I had also heard a caution against making up names for our guardian angels and also can't remember where. The objections might have included the idea that you could be unintentionally invoking an evil spirit if you tried to talk to your angel using a name that wasn't the one God gave him. Is there any validity to that? I was also thinking that naming seems to suggest authority over someone and we don't have that over the angels, so maybe that is an issue too? Just wondering what you think about these ideas. Thank you.
Answer by Fr. Robert J. Levis on 01-26-2006:
Dear Friend, You are so clever; yes, like Adam naming the animals, the namer has authority. Nameing angels is a pious popular fad of a few decades past. It is not even considered by the Church as good, bad, or indifferent. Fr. Bob Levis
__________________________________________________
naming your guardian angel
Question from on 10-14-2005:
Please tell me what is the churches teaching is on naming your guardian angel. I thought it was bad practice to name angels in general except for St. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. I have heard that "new agers" who say they contact angels do that by giving them a name. Some people who teach young children teach them to name their angel. Is this the right thing to do?
God Bless-----------Phil Girardi
Answer by David Gregson on 10-27-2005:
The Church traditionally has discouraged calling on angels by name, unless they've been identified by name as Holy Angels in Scripture. The danger is obvious. Not all angels are good, some having fallen with Lucifer. The practice of naming your Guardian Angel doesn't seem to fall within that prohibition, since you know your Guardian Angel is good, and whatever name might be appropriate for a good Angel, and inappropriate for a fallen angel, would probably be OK. (For example, I know a holy person who named her Angel "Innocence".) I myself wouldn't do it, for one reason, because naming in Scripture implies having authority over the person named. I have no authority over my Guardian Angel. I can ask his help, but I can't tell him what to do.
These are good arguments against naming your guardian angel, Spacepiston. Thanks for the correction!
Peace,
Daniel
please email me.i like your site and by the way iam acatholic.thanks