Our Guardian Angel is always with us. However, few people receive the grace of physically sensing the presence of this guardian.
Our Guardian Angels are at our side, untiring, attentive, kindly, and ready to help us in all our needs, whether material or spiritual. The following are some examples of people who were favoured with the grace of seeing their Guardian Angel and of conversing with him repeatedly over the course of their lives.
This will most certainly help us increase our devotion to our best friend, and encourage us to have more zealous recourse to his assistance, in this agitated age.
St. Gemma Galgani – “Are you not ashamed to sin in my presence?”
St. Gemma Galgani (1878-1903) enjoyed the constant and familiar companionship of her protector Angel. She saw him, they prayed together, and he even let her touch him. In short St. Gemma Galgani’s Guardian Angel was an ever-present friend. He rendered her countless services, even carrying messages to her confessor in Rome.
This priest, Fr. Germanus of St. Stanislaus, of the Passionist Order, founded by St. Paul of the Cross, has left us a narrative of St. Gemma’s daily life with her heavenly protector: “Frequently, when asked if her Guardian Angel always remained at his post beside her, Gemma would turn to him with charming ease and immediately become rapt in an ecstasy of admiration the entire time that she gazed upon him.”1 She saw him all day long. Upon retiring, she asked him to keep watch at her bedside and to make a Sign of the Cross on her forehead. Upon awakening, she felt immense joy at seeing him by her side, as she herself told her confessor: “This morning, when I awoke, he was there beside me.”2
When she was preparing for Confession and needed help, her Angel promptly came to her assistance, as she relates: “[He] brought ideas to my mind, and even dictated some words to me, so that I did not find it difficult to write.”3 Additionally, her Guardian Angel was a sublime master of the spiritual life, teaching her how to live an upright life: “My child, remember that the soul that loves Jesus speaks little and suffers much. I order you, in the name of Jesus, never to give your opinion unless asked, and never to hold onto your opinion, but to yield.” And he further added: “When you have committed any fault, acknowledge it immediately, without waiting to be questioned. Remember to guard your eyes, for eyes that are mortified will look upon the beauty of Heaven.”4
Despite not being a religious—in fact she led a common life—St. Gemma Galgani aspired to consecrate herself in the most perfect way possible to the service of Our Lord Jesus Christ. But as is often the case, the mere desire for sanctity is not enough; wise instruction delivered with firmness is needed from someone who guides us. St. Gemma received this kind of instruction. Her gentle, heavenly companion, who was always within her sight, did not withhold rigour when his protégé deviated slightly from the path of perfection. For example, she once put on a piece of golden jewellery when paying a visit to a relative who had given it to her. She took some pleasure in doing this, but when she returned home she heard a salutary admonishment from her Angel, who looked at her with severity: “Remember that the ornaments of a spouse of a Crucified King are thorns and the Cross.”5 Whenever St. Gemma strayed slightly from the path of holiness, she would immediately hear an angelic reprimand: “Are you not ashamed to sin in my presence?”6 Besides acting as guardian, her Guardian Angel also fulfilled the admirable post of teacher of perfection and model of sanctity.
Cecy Cony – Thirty Years of Contact with Her Guardian Angel
A pair of eyes attentively perused the lines of a text, as pages were slowly turned. It was a quiet scene, punctuated by the typical sounds of a Brazilian rural town at the beginning of the last century. The year is 1917. A 17-year-old girl is tranquilly studying in a room adjacent to the entranceway of the house. It was another hot summer evening in Jaguarão, in Rio Grande do Sul State, close to the border of Uruguay.
The front door was ajar, perhaps to provide some ventilation in the stifling heat of the season. The servants were occupied with domestic chores in distant parts of the house. Absorbed in her reading, she did not notice a stranger enter the room, and position himself on the opposite side of the table at which she was seated. When she raised her eyes from the book, she was startled see a man who appeared to be drunk, clutching the edge of the table with both hands. He was tall, strong, and evil-looking. Attached to the wide belt around his waist, was a sheath with a knife, the typical garb of the region.
The stranger stood watching the girl, who was aghast at the apparition, and then started making his way around the table toward her, still clutching its edge. He broke the silence, saying in Spanish: “Tú hablas, yo te estrangulo.”7
The girl was seized with such terror that she only managed to whisper a few words: “My new friend!” Immediately she felt a hand resting on her shoulder, the same she had felt at other moments of danger. It was her faithful Guardian Angel who, by touching her on the shoulder restored her tranquillity. As if by a charm, her terror slipped away, and she was able to get up and run to Acácia, one of the household maids, while the man fled, noisily overturning a chair in his flight.8
Episodes like this one were common in the life of Cecy Cony, a Brazilian born in 1900, in the city of Santa Vitória do Palmar, in the far south of Brazil, who later became a nun in the Congregation of Franciscan Sisters of Penance and Christian Charity, taking the name Maria Antonia. She was granted many gifts, the foremost of which was the grace of seeing her Guardian Angel from the age of five.9
St. Pio of Pietrelcina – Familiarity with the Angels
Even more recently, a great promoter of devotion to the Guardian Angels was St. Pio of Pietrelcina (1887-1968). He was endowed with many mystical gifts, including the stigmata—the wounds of the crucifixion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and on several occasions he received messages from the Guardian Angels of people at a distance who needed his help.
A man named Franco Rissone, aware of St. Pio’s eagerness to spread devotion to the heavenly guardians, sent his own Guardian Angel, every night, from the hotel where he was lodged, to Padre Pio, to transmit messages. Wondering if the Saint actually heard his messages, he asked St. Pio one day, in the confessional: “Reverend Father, do you really hear what I send my Guardian Angel to tell you?” To which the religious replied: “What, do you think I am deaf?”10
While such doubts concerning St. Pio of Pietrelcina’s interaction with the Holy Angels—from many quarters—displayed a measure of mistrust, they also served to highlight his familiarity with these spirits.
A woman named Franca Dolce put the following question to St. Pio: “Father, a few nights ago I sent my Guardian Angel to confer about some important matters with your reverend. Did he come or not?” The confessor replied: “Do you, by chance, believe that your Guardian Angel is as disobedient as you?” The lady prodded for more information: “Good, so he came; and what did he say to you?” St. Pio replied: “Well, he told me what you told him to tell me.” Not satisfied with the response, she again asked: “But what did he say?” St. Pio answered: “He told me…”, and, to her astonishment, he repeated word for word all that she had said to the Holy Angel.11
Another even more stirring example is that of a peasant woman named Banetti, who lived some kilometres from Turin, Italy. It was customary among the devoted penitents of the saintly confessor to send Padre Pio letters from all over Italy and even from other countries on September 20, the anniversary of his reception of the stigmata.
Signora Banetti had no one to take her letter to the city to mail it. She was distressed at not being able to send her greetings to St. Pio, but then she recalled the counsel the Saint had given her the last time she had seen him: “Whenever necessary, send your Guardian Angel to me.”12 Then and there, she addressed a prayer to her heavenly guardian: “O my good Angel, please take my greetings to father, for I have no other way to send them.”13 A few days later, Signora Banetti received a letter from San Giovanni Rotondo, where St. Pio lived, sent by Signora Rosine Placentino, with the following words: “Father has asked me to thank you on his behalf for the spiritual greetings you sent him.”14
St. Frances of Rome – Visible Presence Day and Night
Basilica-Cathedral of St. George, Ferrara (Italy)
St. Frances of Rome, born in 1384 into a distinguished family, was a soul especially favoured by God, from her youth. The benevolence of Divine Providence toward her became even more notable when, after the death of one of her sons, named Evangelista, she began to enjoy daily communication with her “zealous guardian.”
One night while she was sleeping, just before dawn, the room became filled with brightness, in the midst of which appeared her son Evangelista, who had died almost a year before, with a beauty incomparably greater than had been his on earth. Beside Evangelista was another even more striking youth: it was his Guardian Angel.
After remaining some time in silent wonder at the vision, she joyfully asked Evangelista where he was, what he was doing and if he still remembered his mother. Looking heavenward, he replied: “Our occupation is contemplating the eternal abyss of divine goodness, to praise and bless His majesty with transports of joy and love. Enraptured in God in this heavenly beatitude, we are not only incapable of suffering, but we can only desire that which is pleasing to God, Who is our complete and sole happiness. The choirs above us reveal the divine secrets to us.”15 It was then that he told his mother the place he occupied in Heaven: the second choir of the first hierarchy, that is, among the Archangels. He also added that the other youth of greater beauty enjoyed a higher place in Heaven—the reason for his greater splendour, and that he had been designated by God to console her on her earthly pilgrimage. He would remain with her perpetually and, from then on, she would have the consolation of seeing him day and night.
Excerpts from the book
“Creation and the Angels”,
“Know Your Faith” Collection,
Vol. III
Notas
