The Feast of the Guardian Angels

Oct 2, 2025 | Articles

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Today [Thursday 2 October] is  the Feast of the Guardian Angels, falling in the same week as the Feast of St Michael the Angel, which was on Monday.

Perhaps no aspect of piety is as comforting to parents as the belief that an angel protects their little ones from dangers real and imagined. Yet angels are not only for children. Their role is to represent individuals before God, to watch over them always, to aid their prayer, and to present their souls to God at death.

The concept of an angel assigned to guide and nurture each human being is a development of Catholic doctrine and piety based on Scripture but not directly drawn from it. Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:10 best support the belief: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”

Devotion to the angels began to develop with the birth of the monastic tradition. Saint Benedict gave it impetus and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the great 12th-century reformer, was such an eloquent spokesman for the guardian angels that angelic devotion assumed its current form in his day.

A feast in honour of the guardian angels was first observed in the 16th century. In 1615, Pope Paul V added it to the Roman calendar.

The notion of beings who have a purely spiritual existence is common to many religious systems. Angels belong to this category in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. In the Old Testament, angels are somewhat ill-defined beings, whose primary task is to act as messengers and envoys of God. Among their tasks are the protection and support of those who are faithful to God (e.g. in the escort of the Israelites from Egypt – Exodus 23:20; cf. Psalm 91:11). In the period between the Old and New Testaments, the categories and functions of angels became much more precisely defined, and many elements of this development can be seen in the New Testament writings.

The idea that each person has a guardian angel is a very ancient, popular one in both pagan and Jewish tradition. It is reflected in Jesus’ reference to the angels who protect the children (Matthew 18:10) and in the reference to the assumption that Rhoda saw Peter’s angel rather than Peter himself (Acts 12:15). This conception was given more formal definition in the Middle Ages by various theologians, including Thomas Aquinas. Pseudo-Dionysius, the sixth century mystical theologian, laid the foundation for the speculative classification of angels into hierarchies.

The guardian angels were originally commemorated with St Michael. They were first given a day of their own in Portugal in the sixteenth century, and the idea was extended to the whole of the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Clement X in 1670.

Angels are a spiritual reality, even if we cannot see them. When we recite the Nicene Creed, we affirm:
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.

Much around us is unseen: gravity, oxygen, wi-fi! And so is much of the work of God, by his Spirit, through guardian angels even.

In preparing for this service, I came across a homily Pope Francis gave at the Holy Mass for the Opening of the 2024 Session of the XVI General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops Homily of His Holiness at St Peter’s Square on Wednesday 2 October, 2024.

This section seems relevant here:

Given the importance of a Synod, in a certain sense we must try to be “great” in spirit, in heart, in outlook, because the issues that we must deal with are “great” and delicate, and the situations are broad and universal. But it is precisely for this reason that we must not lose sight of the child, whom Jesus continues to place at the centre of our meetings and work tables. He does so to remind us that the only way to be worthy of the task entrusted to us is to lower ourselves, to make ourselves small and to receive one another humbly. The greatest in the Church is the one who bends down the lowest.

Precisely by making himself small, God “shows us what true greatness, indeed, what it means to be God” (Benedict XVI, Homily for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, 11 January 2009). It is not by chance that Jesus says that children’s angels “always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 18:10). In other words, they are like a “telescope” of the Father’s love.

How might we recognise “guardian angels” amongst us, as those who are like the “telescope” of the Father’s love?

How may we be open to being “guardian angels” to others, perhaps in ways we don’t realise we are.

In Ignatian spirituality there’s a practice called The Daily Examen, which invites us to that openness. It has these steps to it

1. Place yourself in God’s presence. Give thanks for God’s great love for you.
2. Pray for the grace to understand how God is acting in your life.
3. Review your day — recall specific moments and your feelings at the time.
4. Reflect on what you did, said, or thought in those instances. Were you drawing closer to God, or further away?
5. Look toward tomorrow — think of how you might collaborate more effectively with God’s plan. Be specific, and conclude with the “Our Father.”

Let me pause as we consider those and then pray to conclude.

Lord God of heaven and earth,
you surround us with your tender care
and guard us in every danger;
open our hearts to your call,
that we may walk in the right path
and be led in the way of peace;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Amen.

Dan 3:19-21, 24-26, 28 Matt 18:1-18

Sermon by Rev’d Dr Andrew Butcher
St Barnabas, Fendalton, Christchurch 2 October 2025
Used with kind permission

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