Guardian Angels: Seek Them In Times Of Stress And Danger 

By Michael H. Brown

Today (October 2) we celebrate the feast of the guardian angels and in times such as this it's important to know that they're there, they are all around, they wait for us to call on them. When it's the will of God, when it's done in the right way -- with enough prayer -- we can even ask them to do our bidding, to go on missions. Angels guard us. They can be sent to guard members of our families. They give us information. Many good thoughts originate from them, as do many of our uncanny intuitions. When something suddenly "comes" to us, when we just "know" something that turns out to be true, it's often their subtle whispering. 

They inform us and guide us as they informed Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary. And they minister. When you're down or ill, when you really need something, when you're trying to discern, ask for their intercession. As we know, they even ministered to Jesus. They wait for our requests, and they're only too glad to help. Surround yourselves with them. Ask them to go before you and prepare the way. Ask their intercession in difficult circumstances. Ask them to speak to the angels guarding people you may be having problems with. If you have sorrow ask them to remove the sorrow and if you have fear ask them to remove the fear. They protect, and they radiate. I believe that when we see a "glow" around someone, it's often because they have been enveloped by an angel. It's angels who orchestrate many supernatural gifts and when we're under attack our angels can chase off dark spirits.

Call on them. Pray for them to come. Ask their intercession! Last week we repeated an account of a series of dreams in which an angel who called himself Michael and two others seemed to be ministering to me. It was in a dream, which is how they often communicate. I believe there have been other times they have dramatically intervened, as they intervene in all our lives, often without our realizing it. At times the intercession is dramatic. On September 19, 1988, I was working upstairs in my parents' home when I felt an unusual prompting to go downstairs. I always took a noon nap upstairs but I kept getting this prompting (take your nap downstairs!). I finally did, and good thing: a fire erupted upstairs that would have probably suffocated me if I had been sleeping up there. 

The more we call on angels, the more they're there. The more we pray the more we empower them. Of course, we do this all in the Name of Christ, and with the help of Our Blessed Mother -- who is Queen of Angels! They even help in what seem like "little" things. In 1994 we moved to a new house and I had to do something I had never done: plant a lawn. I didn't even know how to run a lawnmower. But with the help of my father-in-law, I went about this daunting task and at one point, when I absentmindedly left the sprinkler on so long it should have washed everything away, "someone" shut off the hose even though I was the only one home.

At the time, I was writing a book about angels!

And when the grass came up, I was astonished by how lush it was. I couldn't believe the reaction to it. It had come up perfectly, and at one point a stranger passed on the street, stopped, and smiled a smile I can still see. 

Scanning the lawn, he said, "This must be because you're a Catholic author."

We had just moved into the neighborhood. I don't think I had even told the neighbors yet what I did for a living. But somehow this man knew. I never got his  name. He just stopped and pointedly admired the lawn and one of us joked that I had used "Miracle-Gro."

Actually I think it was "angel-gro." The man left for the other end of the subdivision, but in the years that followed I never saw him again...