Today is the Feast of the Guardian Angels. As Fr. Cyprian said at Mass this morning,
some people believe in them and some people don’t -- Me, I’m a firm believer! One of the Fathers of the Church, St. Basil
the Great (329-379AD) told us: “Beside
each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him (sic) to life.” (St. Basil, Adv. Eunomium III, 1: pg 29, 656B) I think I feel that protective presence each
day. But what I also believe is that we
can be angels to one another. One of our
sisters tells the story of sliding off the road during a snow storm and two
young men helped her get her car back on the road and when she turned around to
thank them they were gone. Angel or not? I think they were.
Henri Nouwen tells us:
“We need to be angels for each other, to give each other strength and
consolation. Because only when we fully realize that the cup of life is not only
a cup of sorrow but also a cup of joy will we be able to drink it.” (Can You
Drink The Cup, Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, IN, 1996, Chapter 3) Yesterday the team of the Franciscan Spiritual Center (FSC) went out for
breakfast to celebrate one another. One
was transitioning from the FSC to a new ministry, one was just starting her
first day ministering at the Spiritual center, and one was beginning the year
of her golden jubilee. The one thing that
is clear to me as we share our lives side by side is that we influence one another and we make each
other better than we could ever be alone.
We have different talents and different personalities and all of those
gifts come together in a wonderful way to manifest as the Franciscan Spiritual Center. We are angels for one another. Luciano
de Crescenzo, the famous Italian writer, tells us: We are angels with one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another. Enjoy this song based on that quote and ponder the question for
yourself: Angels: Yes or no?
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