Don’t Torment Your Guardian Angel

Hey everyone, God bless you. Thanks so

much for tuning in. We're getting ready

for Christmas. I hope your heart is uh

beginning to dance in anticipation of

celebrating our savior's birth. Angels

are front and center at this time of

year uh in the celebration of the

church. And I'd like to speak with you a

little bit about your guardian angel and

especially about not tormenting your

angel. It's the teaching of the church

and our experience, the experience of

believers for 2,000 years that we

receive in holy baptism a guardian

angel. The language of the baptismal

service is quite clear about this. The

celebrant, the priest performing the

baptism, prays, yoke to his life a

radiant angel. Uh we think that that

yoking takes place in the bapt baptismal

service. In fact, angels and demons are

front and center in the baptismal

service. I did a lecture on this uh in

my series on demonology which you can

find on the petristic nectar app if you

want to explore the teaching of the uh

baptismal service which is so profound

about the angelic realm and the demonic

realm. Jesus our Lord of course spoke

about guardian angels in a famous

passage in the 18th chapter of St.

Matthew's gospel where the Lord says

speaking of little children, their

angels always behold the face of my

father who is in heaven. Uh this is not

uh the first place we learn about

guardian angels in the scriptures. Of

course, King David uh in the Psalms

reflects upon uh the guardian angel.

This is in Psalm 33:8.

He writes, "The angel of the Lord

encamps around about those who fear him

and delivers them." St. Basil the great

in his commentary on that psalm on Psalm

33 illumines us about the meaning of

this. He says quote, "Everyone who has

believed in the Lord has an angel always

near him unless we drive him away by our

evil deeds. For just as smoke makes bees

withdraw and foul smells drive away

doves, so sin, lamentable and stinking

drives away the angel who is guardian of

our lives. If you have in your soul

works worthy of angelic protection, God

will place by you protectors and keepers

and will surround you with an angelic

guard. And note the power of the angelic

nature that one angel is likened to an

entire encampment. Just as walls are

built around cities and deter enemy

attacks from all quarters. So likewise

does the angel protect you on all sides

like a bull work. What a beautiful word

from St. Basil the great about the value

of the guardian angel. How loving the

Lord God is to provide us with the care

uh of a guardian angel. So powerful, so

nourishing, so so uplifting for we who

uh live through the trials of this life.

to know the presence of our guardian

angel, to include that guardian angel in

your life, to acknowledge his presence,

to speak to him, to pray to him and ask

for his help, to give thanks to him in

deliverances, to have an icon of your

guardian angel. This is our custom. Uh

we we pray to our guardian angel. There

are beautiful texts. If you can even

read a cannon to your guardian angel

on a regular basis, there's a story from

the life of St. Marius the Great that is

about the guardian angel and

particularly uh applies to our theme

which is don't torment your guardian

angel. I'd like to read to you just a

snippet from that story. St. Macarios

the great is in Constantinople

and one day the saint encountered a

noble young man [clears throat] weeping

outside a den of vice. This is like

outside of a wh house outside of a

prostitution uh center. We have so many

of those in growing all the time

unfortunately in our country. They

should all be illegal. They should all

be banished. But uh in fact they're

multiplying like crazy. many dens of

vice,

not just whouses, but uh casinos with

all sorts of awful things. One day, the

saint encountered this noble man weeping

outside a den of vice. The youth had his

face buried in his hands and wailed and

made such loud lamentation that you

would think heaven itself wept with him.

Can you imagine this scene? St. Marlo

finds this young man. He's got his hands

in his head. He's just crying his

eyeball eyeballs out but not quietly

with lamentation so great it's as though

all heaven is joining him. So Macarios

went up to him and asked him to explain

the reason for his sadness.

The youth answered, "Glorious servant of

God, I am by nature an angel." Wow. As

every Christian receives an angel from

God at the time of his baptism, it was

given to me to protect this man here.

But I'm filled with sorrow when I see

him sinning as he is doing now in this

den of vice. How could I not lament over

the image of God which has been reduced

to such darkness? Oof. St. Macarios

responded to him,

why don't you admonish him? And the

angel replied, I have no right to go

near him since he began to sin. He is

the slave of the demons and I have no

authority over him. Think of that when

you're tempted to watch pornography.

Think of that when you're tempted to

succumb to a sin of the flesh like this

poor man who had become the devil's

slave was. You know, we pray in the

litines of vespers, orthos, and the

divine liturgy. All three our most

important services. We pray in those

services for an angel of peace, a

faithful guide, a guardian of our souls

and bodies. Let us ask of the Lord.

Angels are front and center in every day

liturggically and especially at this

sacred season of Advent in which we are

preparing ourselves for celebrating the

nativity in the flesh of our Lord and

God and sweet Savior Jesus Christ. The

angels are leading us in the celebration

of the nativity as they always have. Of

course, it was an angel, the great

archangel Gabriel, who announced the

conception of Christ in the womb of the

Virgin Mary. The annunciation on March

25th is celebrated 9 months, of course,

before the birth of Christ that angels

heralded in the heavens, singing the

great doxology, glory to God in the

highest and on earth, peace, goodwill

among men. That hymn that we sing in

every uh service of at the end of the

festival orthos before we begin the

divine liturgy is a hymn we learn from

the angels on how to praise the lord

especially for the coming of Christ.

When we sin dear ones we don't just

grieve the Lord Christ himself but we

torment our guardian angel. Let's live

in such a way you and me with God's

help.

Let's live in such a way as to please

the Lord and to bring a smile to the

face of our guardian angel. May the Lord

grant that to us. Let us join the angels

this nativity in singing the praise of

the God man, the theanthropos, our Lord

Christ, whose birth in the flesh we

celebrate in just a few days. I offer

you best wishes for a most sublime

celebration of Christmas. God be with

you all.

A very wild

we commemorate.

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