The paradise of the Christian soul/Chap. II. The Honour and Veneration of the Saints, and particularly the Angel Guardian.
CHAPTER II.
THE HONOUR AND VENERATION OF THE SAINTS. AND
PARTICULARLY THE ANGEL GUARDIAN.
The holy angels are to be honoured with a particular devotion, on account of the superior dignity of the angelic nature, as well as the peculiar love which they bear to us, and the benefits they confer on us. For though in essence they are spirits, the noblest of all creatures, denizens of the court of God, and always beholding the face of the Father who is in heaven, yet, as St. Bernard says, this does not deprive us of their affectionate ministry; for while they inhabit the heavens, they do not despise the earth. For they are all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation.
They love their fellow-citizens, says St. Austin, whom they expect to fill the vacancies that were made by their own fall. And therefore at all times, and in all places, they earnestly and anxiously watch us, to succour us, and provide for our wants. They accompany us in all our ways, they go in and out with us, and observe attentively how piously and honestly we live in the midst of a corrupt people.
They assist us in our labours, they protect us in our repose, they encourage us in combat, they crown us in victory. They rejoice with us when we rejoice, and suffer with us when we suffer. "When we do well, the angels rejoice, and the devils are sorry. When we go astray from good, we gladden the devil, and defraud the angels of their joy.
We should honour with particular devotion our tutelar angels, to whose charge God has committed us, to keep us in all our ways. And we should often praise in them the mercy of God, who has provided us with so faithful and powerful a protector against the wiles of our maligant enemy, and the various perils of this life.
It is, moreover, a devotion most pleasing to them, and most profitable to us, to reverence at all times, and in all places, the presence of the angels. St. Bernard gives us this excellent precept: Maintain thy reverence alike in every corner where thou goest. Durst thou do in his presence what thou durst not in mine? Philosophers have determined, that there is no more effectual method of resisting evil, than merely to represent some grave personage as present to the mind. Let any one then who would he ashamed to address a Christian in the language of a heathen, he himself ashamed to appear a worse character than the heathen himself. Accept, he says, of a useful and salutary maxim, which I would wish thee to fix firmly in thy mind. We must choose some good man (one, in fact, like our angel guardian), and keep him always before our eyes; to live as if he were always looking at us, and to do every thing as if he always saw us. A vast number of sins is avoided, by the presence of a witness with those who are going to sin. Let the mind have one whom it holds in awe, by whose authority it may increase the sacredness even of its own secret. Happy the man who is corrected, not by an action only, but even by a thought!
Bear, then, this counsel in mind, and studiously watch, and readily follow, the guidance of thy guardian. Invoke him very frequently during the day, and always in perils and temptations, that he may faithfully watch and protect thee, direct all thy steps, prosper thy actions, remove from thee all dangers and occasions of evil, and bring to nought the treacherous plots of thy enemies.
We read that it was the practice of good men to endeavour to fortify themselves with an angelic safeguard for every undertaking, and to invoke, not only their own angel guardians, but those with whom they were to be engaged, for safety, peace, or the promotion of the glory of God. Hence, too, they earnestly besought the aid of the angels who preside over kingdoms, provinces, cities, and places. Instances of this, not to mention others, are found in St. Francis Xavier, St. Aloysius, and Peter Faber. St. Bonaventure relates the great devotion of St. Francis to St. Michael. Follow their example, and you will find it a secret but effectual instrument of success in your undertakings, and of escape from numerous perils.
LITANY OF THE HOLY ANGELS.
Collected out of Holy Scripture.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
| Christ, graciously hear us. | ||
| God the Father of heaven, Have mercy on us. | ||
| God the Son, Redeemer of the world, Have mercy on us. | ||
| God the Holy Ghost, Have mercy on us. | ||
| Holy Trinity, one God, Have mercy on us. | ||
| St. Michael, prince of the heavenly host, | Dan. x. | |
| Who didst fight a great battle in heaven with the dragon, | Apoc. xii. | |
| Who didst cast forth out of heaven the dragon with his rebellious angels, | Ibid. | |
| Who, disputing with the devil, didst contend about the body of Moses, | Ep. Jude; Deut. xxxiv. | |
| St. Gabriel, who didst explain to Daniel the heavenly vision, | Dan. ix. | |
| Who didst go down into the furnace with Azarias and his companions, and drive out the flame of fire, | Dan. iii. | |
| Who didst foretell to Zacharias the birth and ministry of John, | Luke i. | |
| Who wast sent by God to Mary at Nazareth, to announce the Incarnation of the Word of God, | Ibid. | |
| St. Raphael, one of the seven spirits that stand before the Lord, | Tob. xii. | |
| Who, as a faithful fellow-traveller, didst conduct safely the younger Tobias, | Tob. v. | |
| Who didst deliver Sara from the devil, | Tob. viii. | |
| Who didst restore his sight to the elder Tobias, | Tob. xi. | |
| Holy Seraph, who, with a coal of fire, didst purify the lips of Isaias, | Isa. vi. | Pray for us. |
| Holy Cherub, who wast set to keep the way of the tree of life, | Gen. iii. | |
| Holy Angels, who stand upon the high and elevated throne of God, | Isa. vi. | |
| Who sing continually to God, Holy, holy, holy, | Ibid. | |
| Who were hospitably received by Abraham in the guise of strangers, | Gen. xviii. | |
| Who struck the Sodomites with blindness, | Gen. xix. | |
| Who brought out Lot and his family from the midst of the ungodly, | Ibid. | |
| Who, having proved his obedience, didst recall Abraham from the sacrifice of his only son, | Gen. xxii. |
| Who ascended and descended on the ladder of Jacob, | Gen. xxviii. | |
| Who didst wrestle with Jacob, and touch him on the thigh, | Gen. xxxii. | |
| Who didst deliver Jacob from all evils, | Gen. xlviii. | |
| Who, passing over the houses of the Israelites, didst strike the first-born of the Egyptians, | Exod. xii. | |
| Who leddest the Israelites out of Egypt by the Red Sea and the desert into the land of promise, | Exod. xiv. &c. | |
| Who gavest the law of God to Moses, | Acts vii. | |
| Who didst withstand Balaam with his ass, as he was going to curse the Israelites, | Num. xxii. | |
| Prince of the host of the Lord, who wast sent to the aid of Josue, | Jos. v. | |
| Who, for the sin of David, didst strike seventy thousand men of the people with pestilence, | 2 Kings xxiv. | |
| Who broughtest food to Daniel into the den of lions, | Dan. xiv. | |
| Who in one night didst slay, in the camp of the Assyrians, a hundred and eighty-five thousand, | 4 Kings xix. | Pray for us. |
| Who severely punished Heliodorus when he would have plundered the treasures of the temple, | 2 Mach. iii. | |
| Who didst encourage Joseph, when afraid to marry the Virgin Mary, | Matt. i. | |
| Who didst announce the birth of Christ to the shepherds, | Luke ii. | |
| Who sang with joy at our Saviour’s birth, Glory to God, and peace to men, | Ibid. | |
| Who didst forewarn Joseph to fly into Egypt with the child Jesus and his mother. | Matt. ii. | |
| Who ministered to Christ in the desert, when he had put the tempter to flight, | Matt. iv. | |
| Who didst comfort Christ in his agony, | Luke. xxii. | |
| Who didst roll back the stone from the sepulchre of Christ, | Matt, xxviii. | |
| Who, sitting in white at the sepulchre of Christ, didst proclaim to the women that Christ was risen, | John xx. |
| Who appeared to the disciples when Christ ascended to heaven, | Acts i. | |
| Who didst lead the apostles out of prison, and set them publicly in the temple, | Acts v. | |
| Who didst wonderfully deliver Peter from chains, and from the hand of Herod, | Acts xii. | |
| Who didst strike Herod in the act of arrogating divine honours, | Ibid. | |
| Who carried Lazarus into Abraham’s bosom. | Luke xvi. | |
| Who have received from God the care and custody of men, | Ps. xc. | |
| Who always see the face of the Father who is in heaven, | Matt, xviii. | |
| Who rejoice over one sinner doing penance, | Luke xv. | |
| Ministering spirits, sent to minister for those who shall receive the inheritance of salvation, | Heb. i. | Pray for us. |
| Ministers of God, who do his will, | Ps. cii. | |
| Who, by Peter, didst procure for Cornelius the centurion the precepts of salvation, | Acts x. | |
| Who offer to God the prayers of them that pray, | Tob. xii. | |
| Who will come with Christ in his majesty to judgment, | Acts x.; Matt. xxv. | |
| Who will summon the whole world to the last judgment with the trumpet, | 1 Thess. iv. | |
| Who will gather together the elect at the end of the world, | Matt. xxiv. | |
| Who will take away all scandals out of Christ’s kingdom, | Matt. xiii. | |
| Who will separate the wicked from among the just, | Ibid. |
All ye holy orders of blessed spirits.
From all dangers, by thy holy angels, Deliver us, O Lord.
From the snares of the devil, by thy holy angels, Deliver us, O Lord.
From plague, famine, and war, by thy holy angels, Deliver us, O Lord.
From sudden and unforeseen death, by thy holy angels, Deliver us, O Lord.
We sinners, Beseech thee, hear us.
By thy holy angels, We beseech thee, hear us.
That thou would spare us, We beseech thee, hear us.
That thou wouldst vouchsafe to govern and preserve thy Church, We beseech thee, hear us.
That thou wouldst vouchsafe to give to the Christian commonwealth peace and unity, We beseech thee, hear us.
That thou wouldst vouchsafe to give eternal rest to all the faithful departed, We beseech thee, hear us.
Lamb of God. Our Father.
A PSALM COMPOSED FROM DIFFERENT PSALMS.
Praise the Lord of heaven: praise him in the high places.
Praise him, all his Holy angels: praise him all his powers.
Bless the Lord, all his angels, ye that are mighty in power, that do his word, to hearken to the voice of his orders.
Bless the Lord, all his powers: ye ministers of his, that do his will.
My soul, bless the Lord: and forget not all his recompenses.
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction: who crowneth thee with mercy and compassion.
For he hath given his angels charge over thee: to keep thee in all thy ways.
In their hands they shall bear thee up: lest perchance thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Upon the asp and the basilisk shalt thou walk: and shall tread under foot the lion and the dragon.
The angel of the Lord shall keep close about them that fear him: and deliver them.
Glory be to the Father.
V. In the sight of the angels will I sing to thee, my God.
R. I will worship in thy holy temple, O Lord: and will confess unto thy name.
V. Lord, hear my prayer.
R. And let my cry come unto thee.
Let us pray.
O God, who dispensest the services of angels and men in a wonderful order, favourably grant that our life may be protected on earth by those who always do thee service in heaven. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel.
O holy Michael the archangel, prince of the heavenly host, who ever standest ready to succour the people of God, and didst wage battle with that old serpent, the great dragon, and didst cast him forth out of heaven; and dost so mightily fight for the Church of God, that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it; from my heart I beseech thee to be present also with me in this difficult and doubtful conflict, which I, a frail and helpless creature, have to wage with the same enemy.
Be with me, O most mighty prince, that I may powerfully withstand, and successfully prevail over, that proud dragon, whom, by the divine power, thou gloriously overcamest, and whom Christ, our almighty king, overthrew in our nature which he took; that so I may both with thee triumph over the enemy, and with the holy angels continually praise the mercy of God, who has so tenderly permitted our race to rise again to grace after our fall, though, by a just judgment, he refused mercy to the bad angels, after the sin which was their ruin.
A Prayer to our holy Angel Guardian.
I adjure thee, angelic spirit, who art my faithful guardian and defender, to direct me, who have been entrusted to thy custody and protection, in the way of peace, prosperity, and salvation; and to defend me from every evil spirit and sore temptation.
Thou knowest, most tender guardian, that I am framed to the image of God himself, our Creator; redeemed from the power of Satan at so great a price as the blood of Christ, and committed by the providence of God to thy care and protection. And all for what purpose, but to secure one so mightily fenced by the goodness and mercy of God, from falling a prey to the envy of the enemy?
Let thy faithful assistance, therefore, preserve me, that such eminent tokens of the divine goodness may not be lost upon me. Most dear angel, I implore thee, by the love of the most merciful God, which preserved thee with the good angels in grace and glory, when the rest, who were reprobate, fell from the height of happiness by pride,— that, by thy aid and favour, I also may obtain the powerful assistance of God, to preserve me from danger of falling; and to keep me constant to the end in grace and good works, and in the love and service of God my Creator, until I come to behold him in my heavenly home, and am united with thee and all the saints, in praising him for ever and ever. Amen.
Another short Prayer to our holy Angel Guardian.
O angel of God, who art my guardian, enlighten, keep, govern, and direct me, this day, night, or hour, who by the divine goodness am entrusted to thy charge.
V. He hath given his angels charge over thee.
R. To keep thee in all thy ways.
Almighty and everlasting God, who hast created me, thy unworthy servant, to thy own image, and hast deputed thy holy angel to be my guardian, grant me, by his guidance and protection, successfully to pass through all dangers both of soul and body, and, this life ended, to attain to the enjoyment with him of eternal happiness. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.