Today is the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels and so I'd like to share one of the first prayers I've learned (I'm sure most, if not all, of us know this):
Angel of God, my guardian dear
to whom God's love, commits me here
ever this day, be at my side
to light and guard
to rule and guide.
Amen.
It's just comforting to know that in our life, God sends angels to help, protect, and guide us especially in the most difficult moments. :)
The communion song was very fitting. Muntik na nga akong maiyak e. :)
And He will raise you up on eagles' wings
Bear you on the breath of dawn
Make you to shine like the sun
And hold you in the palm of His hand.
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| My guardian angel :) |
Also, yesterday was the Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus (St. Therese of Lisieux) and I find here life really inspiring. At a very young age, she sensed that deep longing for God and had the desire to discover and pursue her vocation. She once prayed, "Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be and becoming that person." Despite her lack of formal education, she was gifted with so much wisdom and intimate knowledge of God. During the last days of her life, she experienced what St. John of the Cross calls the dark night of the soul but she knew all along that God was still there even if she doesn't feel Him, even if it seems He has already abandoned her.
This is one section in her autobiography where she beautifully narrated her quest for vocation:
Since my longing for martyrdom was powerful and unsettling, I turned to the epistles of St. Paul in the hope of finally finding an answer. By chance the 12th and 13th chapters of the 1st epistle to the Corinthians caught my attention, and in the first section I read that not everyone can be an apostle, prophet or teacher, that the Church is composed of a variety of members, and that the eye cannot be the hand. Even with such an answer revealed before me, I was not satisfied and did not find peace.
I persevered in the reading and did not let my mind wander until I found this encouraging theme: Set your desires on the greater gifts. And I will show you the way which surpasses all others. For the Apostle insists that the greater gifts are nothing at all without love and that this same love is surely the best path leading directly to God. At length I had found peace of mind.
When I had looked upon the mystical body of the Church, I recognized myself in none of the members which St. Paul described, and what is more, I desired to distinguish myself more favourably within the whole body. Love appeared to me to be the hinge for my vocation. Indeed I knew that the Church had a body composed of various members, but in this body the necessary and more noble member was not lacking;
I knew that the Church had a heart and that such a heart appeared to be aflame with love. I knew that one love drove the members of the Church to action, that if this love were extinguished, the apostles would have proclaimed the Gospel no longer, the martyrs would have shed their blood no more. I saw and realized that love sets off the bounds of all vocations, that love is everything, that this same love embraces every time and every place. In one word, that love is everlasting.
Then, nearly ecstatic with the supreme joy in my soul, I proclaimed: O Jesus, my love, at last I have found my calling: my call is love. Certainly I have found my place in the Church, and you gave me that very place, my God. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and thus I will be all things, as my desire finds its direction.
We also experience that same dark night of the soul but may we find confidence and consolation in knowing that God was, is, and always with us every single moment. We just have to be a little more sensitive to His presence and mindful of the angels in our midst. :)
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