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| Guardian Angel by Domeenchino (Wikimedia Commons). |
Years ago a Bible study friend of mine talked about going shopping with Lenore. Who was Lenore? Her guardian angel. How did she know her name? She asked her.
So I began to ask my guardian angel what her name was. After several years with no results, I started calling her Grace. If she didn’t like that name, she could tell me what to call her.
Months went by with Grace and I doing things together. Mostly I called on her because of electrical storms, traffic jams or nightmares. Sometimes I remembered her when I was joyful. She watched over me when I slept.
As I recuperated from injuries from a traffic accident, I couldn’t fulfill my responsibilities and I needed her. Early one morning after a difficult night, I tried to put myself in the presence of God by surrendering all my concerns, my pain, my unachieved goals and desires. In my weakness, the Holy Spirit gave me many graces. I received insights about several ministry projects, including new ways to use our website for evangelism. I sought guidance on a manuscript about joy that I was writing, but nothing came about that. While I was in this listening position that God sometimes puts me in, I heard distinctly in my mind, “Her name is Joy.” I hadn’t even asked!
Continue reading at Nancy's blog JOY Alive in Our Hearts.
I read in several places that naming your guardian angel is not recommended by the Church. I can't remember where I read it, but just FYI.
ReplyDeleteWe heard a talk recently by Fr Chad Ripperger, an exorcist, in which he stated we are not to name our Angel. One of the reasons he mentioned, we don't have the Authority over them to name. Adam had authority over the animals to name them, we have the authority over our children to name them. But we do not have authority over our angels to name them.
ReplyDeleteJenny and Anonymous, our pastor recently said the same thing in a homily. Here's where I quibble with them. When I have done this with my kids, we are not "naming" our angels in the sense that we name our kids. We are Asking them what their names are. So I don't see how this is taking authority over them, any more than if I ask you what your name is when we meet. And Nancy was certainly not trying to take authority over her guardian angel. It seems to me she was calling her angel by a nickname until she found out the angel's real name. I doubt the Church has an official teaching on this. If someone finds that an official Church document or statement does tell us not to do this and addresses the issue as I have stated it, let me know, and we'll remove this post. For now I see no problem with it.
ReplyDeleteThis document for the Congregation for Divine Worship does have one line about "assigning names" to angels, but it does not address asking your angel about his name. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20020513_vers-direttorio_en.html I think this is a grey area, but I'm open to hearing further thoughts on this.
DeleteFr Ripperger also spoke of deception on the part of the evil one. When we "ask" of the spiritual realm we can be mislead by the evil one. Satan is called the ape of God, meaning he mocks all that God does. So God assigns a guardian angel...satan assigns a demon angel. So when we ask for a name, we cannot be sure "who" is answering. Fr Ripperger is a nationally recognized exorcist. Some of his sermons and lectures can be found at http://www.sensustraditionis.org/multimedia.html
ReplyDeleteI also wanted to add, I do not doubt Nancy's sincerity or faithfulness to the Church. We just went to this talk a couple of months ago and it was a revelation to me and my family. We had never considered many of the points Fr Ripperger addressed with regards to out guardian angel.
ReplyDeleteOh good, Fr Ripperger put his talk on Guardian Angels on line. http://www.sensustraditionis.org/multimedia.html Scroll down about half way to "Conferences Given by Fr Ripperger in Tulsa" It is the 4th talk, "Angels."
ReplyDeleteI don't know if my comment worked (I was on my phone), so if I double post I apologize. I just want to say that I agree that we should not name our angels or ask them for their name. I also agree that demons can put those thoughts in our mind so we should be careful about inviting that kind of thing. I had an experience where I received a name that I can call my angel. However, I do not consider it his real name, but only a name I may call him in order to talk to him. It may be his real name, it may not be. I don't have enough information to know that for sure, and I don't want to offend his authority over me by presuming it is his real name. I don't think there is anything wrong with coming up with a nickname so that we can call them something other than just 'angel' but we should never consider it their real name in my opinion, even if it is revealed. Also, as an aside, we should not talk as if angels are feminine. They are masculine in the bible and in any other type of writing that is approved by the Church that I have ever heard of and we should stick with that. I'm open to correction on that point, but it is my opinion that angels such as Michael and Raphael and Gabriel are referred to as 'he' so we should do the same with our angels.
ReplyDeleteOh and one more thing. The 'name' I got for my angel, I consider it to be more of a description of what he is like in one way, not his real name. More like an aspect of his personality. That's why I thought it was appropriate to call him this, not as if it was his 'name'. If the OP thought of it like this, since it was 'joy' she got, then maybe her angel is particularly joyful in his personality or character. Just a kind of after thought I had.
DeleteI had no idea this would turn out to be such a controversial post. Nancy is out of town for Christmas, so she can't answer for herself right now. Thanks for your further thoughts, Jenny and Rebecca. The name I use for my angel is a Biblical name ending in "el," like the archangels, and referring to God. I felt like it was the answer to my request for his name. I don't think a demon would call himself by it. Whether it is my angel's real name as God calls him or not, I don't know. But it has helped my feel more like my angel is real and personal and a friend. I know seeking revelations can be a problem. At the same time, I don't think we should look for demons everywhere. It seems to me that if we are asking our guardian angels for their names and their job is to protect us from demons, they would not be doing their jobs well if they let demons answer instead of answering us themselves. But people could say something similar about seeking God in the wrong places...
ReplyDeleteAlso, I thought that demons cannot read our thoughts, so if we don't tell anyone we are praying about our angel's name, how would a demon know to answer? I know one person who secretly was doing this and got a phone call from someone saying, "This is_____, I'm your guardian angel." No joke! He thinks it was a friend of his who has some medical issues that cause him to go into a certain kind of fit or stupor where he doesn't know what he's doing. In this case it was thought God was using him to answer the prayer.
As far as feminine vs masculine, I agree that the Church (as far as I know) always speaks of angels as masculine. However, there is a verse in one of the prophets (I forget which one) which talks about a vision of a woman "with the moon in her wings" (or something similar). I have no clue what kind of creature that is referring to.
I will be thinking about this some more. Thanks for all the comments.
As someone who was, unfortunately, involved in the occult for a brief time, I would never ask for a supernatural revelation of any sort. Knowing from experience that the demons will not hesitate to tell us to pray or even to go to Mass, if it can further their ability to convince us that they are "holy" angels, I don't doubt that they would reveal a name we would think could only come from a good angel. The mystics caution to always be suspect of any revelations, etc. The priests who head up Opus Sanctorum Angelorum, or Work of the Holy Angels teach in agreement with the exorcist priest mentioned above. They also teach that because angels communicate to us and are the "initiators," we are in the receptive position, and hence it is proper to think of them as "male," although they, of course, do not actually possess gender. I guess the bottom line is that we can just never know for sure "where" the information we ask for comes from when it is something in the realm of curiousity...not necessary for salvation, etc. Interesting discussion here, and hope my comments don't offend anyone. Peace!
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting reading...I thought that the angels in the Bible
Deletewere referred to as male . The archangels in the Bible, Michael, Raphael, Gabriel all appear to be possessing masculine characteristics since they
are not only the messengers of God, but warriors against evil as well.
Sandy