September 2016 - Holy Angels
Dom Guéranger, The Liturgical Year, Feast of the holy guardian angels
Blessed are you, holy Angels, for the crimes of men never dispirit your charity. Among your innumerable benedictions, we give you thanks for maintaining earth habitable, never abandoning us to ourselves. Often, solitude weighs heavy in the hearts of the sons of God whether in our immense cities or on the roads of the world, where we find ourselves among strangers and enemies.
Still, if the number of good people has declined, yours does not decrease. Be they in febrile crowds or in the desert, there is no human being who does not have his Angel by his side. He represents God's universal Providence towards both those who are evil and those who are good.
Blessed Spirits, you and we have these things in common: one homeland, one mind, one love. So why should the din of a frivolous crowd disrupt the heavenly life that we could share with you even now? Does our public tumult keep you from forming your choirs? Does it keep the Almighty from listening to you harmonies?
We too live in faith in the secret presence of the face of the Father (Ps 33, 21), and that ceaseless contemplation fills us with bliss (Mt 18, 10). We too wish to sing to the Lord wherever we are, to adore him at all times along with you. Thus resembling the angels, this present life will be peaceful, and eternity will hold no surprises for us.