Milo and the Guardian Angels

It was getting late and I was ready to call it a day but then I remembered I promised Milo, our little black cocker spaniel, I would take him on a walk. Strolling in the autumn night with a flashlight to illuminate the precarious path, we made our way carefully, always on the look out for predators real or imagined.

The muddy horse trails and uneven, cracked sidewalks added to the adventure. They had overgrown fruit trees with stray, branches encroaching at eye level. The situation called for extreme awareness and vigilance especially in the dark. 

I let the retractable leash out a little more to give Milo some freedom to investigate the bushes, fire hydrants  and lamp posts along the way. He likes to run ahead and pull on the leash.

When Milo gets excited he resembles a fluffy, curly, black fur-ball zigging and zagging across the ground. His giant ears flap and bounce over the fallen leaves and create a vacuum of dust and autumn air which he inhales vigorously with his petite, always damp charcoal nose. 

I don't want to call him dumb but Milo is oblivious to danger. Ya, he's really dumb. When cars zoom past us he leaps off the curb toward them straining the leash. For some reason he thinks it's a good idea to charge at the speedy hunks of deadly metal as they wiz by. If there were no leash Milo would bolt headlong into traffic and he would have been squashed long ago in the perilous passing.

Without my guidance he probably would get lost on the thorn-laden horse trails and undoubtedly attract the attention of the roving coyotes which seem to have infested our otherwise quiet neighborhood. I don’t know if Milo is aware that I saved his life over and over everytime we venture out together into our fallen world. He is happily indifferent.  Thankfully for Milo I'm there to be his light and guide.

Then it dawned on me. I’m probably that way too. How many times has my guardian angel had to pull me back and illuminate a better way forward? How many times has he been my guide when I haven’t properly navigated or even drawn up a clear trajectory on the map of the journey of life? 

This analogy of Milo and my guardian angel has helped me to value the Guardian Angel Prayer. I ask my guardian angel every day to light, to guard, to rule and to guide. Unlike Milo, I do appreciate that my guardian angel is real and effective in my life. He has saved me many times, sometimes he has even preserved my life. While it sounds like a child’s rhyme, the Guardian Angel Prayer is theologically on point.

The words were carefully chosen by Saint Anselm, the 11th century theologian who was also a Benedictine monk and archbishop of Canterbury. In it, he expresses who my guardian angel is (an angel of God) and why he helps me (out of the love of God). With precision, it asks my angel for four specific tasks: to light my way, to guard me from evil, to govern my actions and to guide me to do God's will. Like Milo, I need illumination, instruction, protection and discipline. 

Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love entrusts me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen. 

Regarding our guardian angels and our pets, the great Peter Kreeft made the observation,

“They (guardian angels) are our bodyguards and soulguards. But not as servants or pets. If anything, we are like pets to them.”

They have more knowledge and more power than us and their scope of reality is way less diminished than ours. Being pure spirits they are not confined to space or time which makes them speedy, agile and light able to easily cross through the veil that separates our natural world and the supernatural world. 

He waited anxiously for his master to come home and finally he was free to be a happy dog and  go on his walk. Once I put the leash on him, Milo was free from the confines of the house to venture out into the world.

If you think about it, Milo was paradoxically more free to venture into the night and arrive back home in one piece because the leash often held him back from a terrible demise.

Similarly, illumined by God's grace, we are more free to act in the world which is dark and fallen. When we have formed our conscience in accordance with the will of God as expressed in his eternal law our angel, with leash in hand, is able to do those four tasks in our daily lives for which he has been assigned to light, to guard, to rule and to guide.

Our guardian angels can only function as God intends if we too allow ourselves to be on a type of leash. 

As creatures and as beings made in the image and likeness of God who were baptized into his family as adopted sons or daughters, we are called to obedience. We must have an openness to hear God’s word and follow his commands.

Earlier I mentioned that I didn't think Milo appreciated that I am his guide and helper. I am beginning to reconsider that indictment. Milo does like to cuddle and he will lick the back of my hand at random times. We have grown to appreciate each other I guess. He reminds me that I should spend time thanking my guardian angel and that I am often the dumb one in need of rescue. I am no longer going to take my relationship with Milo or my guardian angel for granted.