To live a contemplative life, one has to live with the invisible world just as “naturally” or “comfortably” as one lives with the visible. Otherwise, we would just be lonely. But Christianity is not lonely. Never!

Jesus became incarnate and gathered around himself a Church: a Church in heaven and a Church in pilgrimage on earth (and a Church suffering in Purgatory). But it’s all one Church. Everything is linked. When we are with Jesus, his Church is not absent. The Church of Heaven is present, too.

And today is the feast of the Guardian Angels. We all have a guardian angel.* Next to Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit, they are the closest thing we have to a best friend in heaven. Someone who loves us and always goes with us and watches out for us. Amazing!

They protect us as we sleep, they have their own concerns and pour them into our hearts, they encourage us… Blessed Charles de Foucauld even said that his guardian angel would wake him up to pray, when he felt lax. It’s truly amazing that everyone, Christian and non-Christian, has a friend like this.

Some previous posts about angels: