That They Might Guard
You In All Your Ways
He has given his angels charge over you to guard
you in all your ways. Let them thank the
Lord for his mercy; his wonderful works are for the children of men. Let them
give thanks and say among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them.
O Lord, what is man that you have made yourself known to him, or why do you
incline your heart to him? And you do incline your heart to him; you show him
your care and your concern. Finally, you send your only Son and the grace of
your Spirit, and promise him a vision of your countenance. And so, that nothing
in heaven should be wanting in your concern for us, you send those blessed
spirits to serve us, assigning them as our guardians and our teachers.
He has given his angels charge over you to guard
you in all your ways. These words should
fill you with respect, inspire devotion and instil confidence; respect for the
presence of angels, devotion because of their loving service, and confidence
because of their protection. And so the angels are here; they are at your side,
they are with you, present on your behalf. They are here to protect you and to
serve you. But even if it is God who has given them this charge, we must
nonetheless be grateful to them for the great love with which they obey and
come to help us in our great need.
So let us
be devoted and grateful to such great protectors; let us return their love and
honour them as much as we can and should. Yet all our love and honour must go
to him, for it is from him that they receive all that makes them worthy of our
love and respect.
We should
then, my brothers, show our affection for the angels, for one day they will be
our co-heirs just as here below they are our guardians and trustees appointed
and set over us by the Father. We are God’s children although it does not seem
so, because we are still but small children under guardians and trustees, and
for the present little better than slaves.
Even
though we are children and have a long, a very long and dangerous way to go,
with such protectors what have we to fear? They who keep us in all our ways
cannot be overpowered or led astray, much less lead us astray. They are loyal,
prudent, powerful. Why then are we afraid? We have only to follow them, stay
close to them, and we shall dwell under the protection of God’s heaven.
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of
Readings
From a Sermon by Saint Bernard
Image
taken from Wikimedia
Commons
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