Week of the Heavy Hitters

One of the joys of being Catholic is that we celebrate so much! This week in particular has is full of some of the best feast days around. Saturday was the Feast of the Archangels, Sunday, in addition to being a feast itself was the Feast of St. Jerome, Yesterday was the Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Today, the Guardian Angels and the founding of Opus Dei, Thursday St. Francis of Assisi and Friday St. Helena Maria Faustina.

For the most part, these are VERY popular devotions. St. Therese and St. Francis are popular in the non-Catholic world. The perception of these saints is often that of happy, soft, peaceful people. Nothing could be further from the truth. I admit, I did not have much devotion to St. Therese until fairly recently. I saw her as too sheltered to relate to, too good to have anything in common with, and honestly, I thought a woman who died at 24 after living in a convent for nearly 10 years could not teach me much. Then I read The Story of a Soul and I realized how wrong I had been.

The Guardian Angels are not the cute little cherubs that we see in Classical Art, they are our protectors and guides. They will plead before God at our judgement. Devotion to them is not merely for our children, but for all, with the reminder that we are to be like children. The good elderly priest at mass today reminded us that to doubtand ignore the Angels is to doubt and ignore the Holy Spirit, of whom they lead us to.

I'll have more on the the feasts this week, as they arrive. Today Let us be little children and say that prayer learned at our mothers' knees.

Angel of God, my Guardian dear, to who God's love, commits me near, Ever this
day be at my Side, to light, to guard, to rule and guide, Amen.