Scottish Catholic Observer

I had a telephone call from a friend of mine in recent times. She was indignant. “What’s the Church’s position on Guardian Angels?” she asked, before going on to relate how she’d asked for the hymn Guardian Angel from Heaven so Bright to be sung after a family Baptism and had her request refused by the parish priest.

Her enquiry stayed with me and the following Sunday, when I was playing before Mass, I found myself drifting into a very quiet version of that ‘Guardian Angel’ hymn so well remembered from childhood. After Mass, a surprising number of people told me how glad they’d been to hear that familiar hymn again after what had seemed a very long time. They, too, lamented that Guardian Angels are rarely if ever mentioned, despite the fact Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI gently reminded us of their existence in fairly recent times.

It is something of a paradox, though, that they would seem to have been claimed by some celebrities who recognise their existence by way of tattoos, talismatic necklaces or suchlike and talk of ‘forces of energy’ emanating from them. Is this no more than celebrity-style attention seeking ploy? Who can say, but a recent poll claims to have shown that one in three people in this country believe that they have a Guardian Angel.

An increasing number of books have been written on the subject in the last five years. One has been translated into 26 different languages and has been sold all over the world. These books would seem to be strongly subjective in content, with widely varying descriptions of ‘sightings’ of Guardian Angels.

In their wake, Guardian Angels might be said to have become a ‘growth industry’ with the appearance of self-appointed ‘mystics’ and ‘angel therapists’ who offer ‘angel card readings,’ healing and harmonising’ or even ‘putting you in touch with your Guardian Angel.’ Given the world in which we live today, it’s all so very predictable. A commercial opportunity not to be missed.

“People naturally have the desire to find meaning and depth in their lives,” says one publisher, seeking to explain this growing interest in angels. “… and often the established Church doesn’t fulfil that…”

Now there is a statement which certainly invites challenge. But it explains in part the way in which many people would seem to be searching for something which is, to them, indefinable, but which, as a thoughtful young man put it to me recently: “Something which holds everything together.”

Can that search be seen in the makeshift shrines which appear at the scenes of tragedies, in the messages to the dear departed appearing on the internet in the wake of untimely deaths?

In recent times, prayer has been mentioned with increasing frequency on such internet pages. At the makeshift shrines, the ‘group hug’ is being replaced now and then by people standing alone, hands clasped, eyes downcast, as if in prayer. Searching for answers? At times, it would certainly seem so.

In these troubled times, we, too, are searching for answers of a different kind. But as we do, those recent conversations I have had on the subject of Guardian Angels have been a comfort, a reminder of that age of innocence that was childhood, when we set out on the journey of Faith that would last  lifetime… and that, of course, in the company of our Guardian Angel.

At the age of five I had temerity to choose my special angel. He was called Wopsy and was based in the jungle where his work was particularly dangerous. I had read about him in a book called, predictably, Wopsy, the Guardian Angel, and said a special prayer to summon him to my side at all times, just in case I had need of special protection. That done, I embarked on activities I hadn’t dared to attempt previously, such as climbing trees. I also had to have a refresher course on kerb drill after taking a few risks crossing the road, secure in the knowledge that Wopsy was close

at hand.

I was very young at the time, but was a bit disappointed when told I could not choose my Guardian Angel. As I said… the age of innocence. And it marked the beginning of the journey of faith on which we all embark, which at times demands leaps of faith and which continues for all of us through times of trouble. And the thought that we make it in the company of our Guardian Angel is a comfort.

A long time ago, when I was in my questioning teens, I had conversations with a very wise old man who was nearing the end of his journey of faith. Laughing, we recalled Wopsy. Then, after a reflective pause, the old man said: “But don’t leave it all to your Guardian Angel. Just remember… the right way is never the easy way, but if you keep the grace of God about you, you’ll come to no harm.”

There is simplicity in those words but also hope in times of trouble.