From Opus Sanctorum Angelorum:
On the day my wife and I made our Consecration to the Guardian Angel, at which ceremony Fr. Wolfgang was to preside, I had to buy two candles on short notice, since they had been forgotten. Since I was not a local, I drove around looking for a store that sells candles. Finally, I found a store that sells Halloween decorations. I thought “they will have candles.” So, I went in and found a package of two red candles. “Perfect!” I thought.
When I began to walk for the cash register, I perceived an overwhelming impulse in my mind, “Not these candles.” So, I stopped and looked at the package, wondering, “What is wrong with these candles?” I saw no reason not to buy them and continued to the cash register. Once again but much more forcefully I had the overwhelming urge “NOT THESE CANDLES!”
I stopped again and this time I read all of the instructions on the package. It turned out that these were special Halloween candles. When the flame from the candle would melt the wax, at a certain point the wax would appear to spit “blood!”
Can you imagine what it would be like, if, during our Consecration to the Guardian Angel, the candles suddenly began to spit “blood” all over? I put the Halloween candles back onto the shelf and left the Halloween store. Quickly thereafter I found a grocery store that sold very fitting candles. Thank you, my good Guardian Angel, for saving me from myself, saving my wife and myself from such an embarrassing situation from which I might have never recovered. Instead, luckily, I have a very funny story to share! –Tom
I was recently attending a Silent Retreat of Opus Angelorum. On Saturday, the third day of the retreat, we had All-Night-Adoration. On that night I was unable to sleep and I spent the night in prayer in the chapel for a Holy Hour. At the same time, my eldest daughter had to attend a wedding which is a typical thing for her, so I usually am not concerned for her safety. However, this night at the retreat I could not shake the feeling that she was in harm’s way; it was like I felt she could die.
I do not say this lightly but the interior feeling was so powerful and all I could do was pray for her safety. So that is what I did for most of the entire night. When I came back from the Adoration, she sent me a text (the only text I read during my silence!) to say that she was safely back to her room and all was good. At the time I thought all was ok but there was still something nagging me.
During the concluding Mass of the retreat, I was consumed by an overpowering sense of joy and perfect peace that I have never experienced before. When I arrived home, I was told that my daughter, for whom I feared had been in a car accident, and she was safe.
The accident happened at the same time I was attending Sunday Mass at the retreat. My daughter told me she was blinded by the sun as she was making a U-turn and she hit a concrete curb and it smashed her car. She said it was a miracle she was not injured. She had to call for help as she was two hours from our home and needed a tow.
A young man arrived and noticed the damage and offered her a lift back to safety. The young man’s name was Michael. My daughter was born on September 29th, on the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel.
After I explained everything to my daughter. She was overwhelmed and very serious. She finally wants to make the Consecration to the Guardian Angel which I had done already some years back.–Michelle
Blessed Peter Faber, who was a member of the “Society of Jesus” (Jesuits), worked in the 16th century as retreat master and preacher. One important character trait in his spiritual life was his fervent devotion to the holy angels. St. Francis de Sales mentions him in his “Philothea” – Introduction to the Devout Life, as an example of fervent devotion and cooperation with the holy angels:
“Seek to be familiar with the Angels; learn to realize that they are continually present, although invisible. Especially, love and revere the Guardian Angel of the Diocese in which you live, those of the friends who surround you, and your own. Commune with them frequently, join in their songs of praise, and seek their protection and help in all you do, spiritual or temporal.”
“That pious man, Peter Faber, the first companion of Saint Ignatius, and the first priest, first preacher and first theological teacher of the Company of the Jesuits, who was a native of our Diocese, once passing through this country on his way from Germany, (where he had been laboring for God’s Glory,) told how great comfort he had found as he went among places infested with heresy in communing with the Guardian Angels thereof, whose help had often preserved him from danger, and softened hearts to receive the faith. He spoke with such earnestness, that a lady who, when quite young, heard him, was so impressed, that she repeated his words to me only four years ago, sixty years after their utterance, with the utmost feeling.”
[resources: books on angels]
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