Guardian angel

In Zoroastrianism they are also known as Arda Fravaš - Holy Guardian Angels. Each person is accompanied by a guardian angel, which acts as a guide throughout life. They originally patrolled the boundaries of the ramparts of heaven, but volunteer to descend to earth to stand by individuals to the end of their days. == Judaism ==

In the Hebrew Bible The guardian angel concept is present in the books of the Hebrew Bible, and its development is well marked. These books described God's angels as his ministers who carried out his behests, and who were at times given special commissions, regarding men and mundane affairs. Late and modern Judaism According to Rabbi Leo Trepp, in late Judaism, the belief developed that, "the people have a heavenly representative, a guardian angel. Every human being has a guardian angel. Previously the term Malakh (angel) simply meant messenger of God." Chabad believes that people might indeed have guardian angels. For Chabad, God watches over people and makes decisions directly with their prayers and it is in this context that the guardian angels are sent back and forth as emissaries to aid in this task. Thus, they are not prayed to directly, but the angels are part of the workings of how the prayer and response comes about. In the view of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: In Judaism, there are references to angels with specific protective functions. An example of this can be seen in the birth protection rituals practiced among others by Ashkenazi Jews in parts of Alsace, Switzerland and Southern Germany. Pregnant women and newborn children would be given text amulets bearing the names of the angels Senoi, Sansenoi and Semangelo. These angels were supposed to protect pregnant women and newborn children from Lilith. This can be traced back to the story of Lilith, in which God sends three angels to bring Lilith back to Adam. They are unsuccessful in this task, but Lilith admits to having been created to harm children. She promises to spare children who carry the name or likeness of the three angels with them. Samael was identified as the guardian angel and prince of Rome and the archenemy of Israel. By the beginning of Jewish culture in Europe, Samael had been established as a representative of Christianity, due to his identification with Rome. == Christianity ==

New Testament In the New Testament the concept of guardian angel may be noted. Angels are everywhere the intermediaries between God and man; and Christ set a seal upon the Old Testament teaching: "See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 18:10). Guardian angels work both for single persons and for communities of people. and refers of the angels of the seven churches of Asia who work in the role of their guardians. Roman Catholic Church According to Saint Jerome, the concept of guardian angels is in the "mind of the Church". He stated: "how great the dignity of the soul, since each one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard it". The first Christian theologian to outline a specific scheme for guardian angels was Honorius of Autun in the 12th century. He said that every soul was assigned a guardian angel the moment it was put into a body. Scholastic theologians augmented and ordered the taxonomy of angelic guardians. Thomas Aquinas agreed with Honorius and believed that it was the lowest order of angels who served as guardians, and his view was most successful in popular thought, but Duns Scotus said that any angel is bound by duty and obedience to the Divine Authority to accept the mission to which that angel is assigned. In the 15th century, the Feast of the Guardian Angels was added to the official calendar of Catholic holidays. In his 31 March 1997 Regina Caeli address, Pope John Paul II referred to the concept of guardian angels and concluded the address with the statement: "Let us invoke the Queen of angels and saints, that she may grant us, supported by our guardian angels, to be authentic witnesses to the Lord's paschal mystery". In his 2014 homily for the Feast of Holy Guardian Angels, 2 October, Pope Francis told those gathered for daily Mass to be like children who pay attention to their "traveling companion". "No one journeys alone and no one should think that they are alone", the Pope said. During the Morning Meditation in the chapel of Santa Marta, the Pope noted that oftentimes, we have the feeling that "I should do this, this is not right, be careful." This, he said, "is the voice of" our guardian angel. "According to Church tradition we all have an angel with us, who guards us..." The Pope instructed each, "Do not rebel, follow his advice!" The Pope urged that this "doctrine on the angels" not be considered "a little imaginative", as it is rather one of "truth": it is "what Jesus, what God said: 'I send an angel before you, to guard you, to accompany you on the way, so you will not make a mistake. Pope Francis concluded with a series of questions so that each one can examine their own conscience: "How is my relationship with my guardian angel? Do I listen to him? Do I bid him good day in the morning? Do I tell him: 'guard me while I sleep'? Do I speak with him? Do I ask his advice?" Each one of us can do so in order to evaluate "the relationship with this angel that the Lord has sent to guard me and to accompany me on the path, and who always beholds the face of the Father who is in heaven." He reiterated this in a homily on 2 October 2018: "Listen to the inspirations, which are always from the Holy Spirit – but the angel inspires them. But I want to ask you a question: Do you speak with your angel? Do you know the name of your angel? Do you listen to your angel?" The Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments discourages assigning names to angels beyond those revealed in scripture: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. on second Sunday of July, Sicily The Opus Sanctorum Angelorum is a public association of the Catholic Church that Christians can join as members in order to promote "devotion to the holy angels and a covenant bond with them through a consecration approved by the Church, so that the holy angels may lead us more effectively to God." Within the Opus Sanctorum Angelorum is the Confraternity of the Holy Guardian Angels that one becomes eligible for after entering a two year formation period. Saints and their angels Father Giovangiuseppe Califano recounted how, one day, a newly appointed bishop confessed to Pope John XXIII "that he could not sleep at night due to an anxiety which was caused by the responsibility of his office". "The pope told him, 'You know, I also thought the same when I was elected pope. But one day, I dreamed about my guardian angel, and it told me not to take everything so seriously.'" Pope John attributed the idea of calling Second Vatican Council to an inspiration from his guardian angel. Saint Gemma Galgani, a Roman Catholic mystic, stated that she had interacted with and spoken with her guardian angel. Saint Pio of Pietrelcina was known to instruct his parishioners to send him their guardian angel to communicate a trouble or issue to him when they could not travel to get to him or another urgency existed. Anglican Communion Of the Intercession and Invocation of Angels and Saints, printed in the Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology, held that "many learned Protestants think it probable that each of the faithful, at least, has a guardian angel. It seems certainly proved by Scripture. Zanchius says that all the Fathers held this opinion". Building upon sacred scripture and the teachings of the Church Fathers, Richard Montagu, the Anglican Bishop of Norwich in the 17th century, stated that It is an opinion received, and hath been long, that if not every man, each son of Adam, yet sure each Christian man regenerate by water and the Holy Ghost, at least from the day of his regeneration and new birth unto God, if not from the time of his coming into the world, hath by God's appointment and assignation an Angel Guardian to attend upon him at all assayes, in all his ways, at his going forth, at his coming home. Eastern Orthodox Church Sergei Bulgakov writes that the Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that: As such, before the Eastern Orthodox liturgy of the Communion of the Faithful, a prayer asks "For an angel of peace, a faithful guide, a guardian of our souls and bodies, let us entreat the Lord. Amen." Lutheran Church The Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer found in Martin Luther's Small Catechism include the supplication "Let your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me". Donald Schneider, a Lutheran priest, states that Martin Luther may have based these prayers on , which includes a verse stating "For [God] will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone". Methodist Church John W. Hanner, a Methodist minister and theologian, wrote on the topic of guardian angels in his Angelic Study, stating that: In May and June 1743, Methodists experienced persecution in Wednesbury and Walsall and the founder of the Methodist Church, John Wesley, was threatened with death by a mob who dragged him in the rain; however, "Wesley escaped unharmed" and he "believed that he had been protected by his guardian angel". Reformed and Presbyterian churches In Reformed Dogmatics, Heinrich Heppe states that some Reformed theologians espoused the view of guardian angels, including Bucan, who taught: == Islam ==

There is a similar Islamic belief in the Mu'aqqibat. According to many Muslims, each person has two guardian angels, in front of and behind him, while the two recorders are located to the right and left. == Renaissance magic ==

Jewish Thought The idea of a Holy Guardian Angel is central to the book The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage by Abraham of Worms, a German Jew, who wrote the book on ceremonial magic during the 15th century and which was later translated by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, a co-founder of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He elaborated on this earlier work, giving it extensive magical notes. In Mathers' publication of The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, he writes: Enochian magic The Enochian system of 16th-century occultist John Dee discusses the guardian angel. In this dialog between Dee and the angel Jubanladace on p.18, Cotton Appendix XLVI 1, the angel says the following: == Thelema ==

Having studied The Book of Abramelin during his time with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, occult writer Aleister Crowley adapted the concept of the Holy Guardian Angel from Renaissance magic (see above) and made it central to the philosophy and practices of Thelema, popularizing it in the process. In his earlier writings, Crowley states that the Holy Guardian Angel is the "silent self", the equivalent of the Genius of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Augoeides of Iamblichus, the Ātman of Hinduism, and the Daimon of the ancient Greeks. In his late sixties, when composing Magick Without Tears, he states that the Holy Guardian Angel is not one's self, but rather a discrete and independent being, who may have been previously human. == Literary usage ==

, Germany Guardian angels were often considered to be matched by a personal demon who countered the angel's efforts, especially in popular medieval drama such as morality plays like the 15th-century The Castle of Perseverance. In Christopher Marlowe's play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, , Faustus has a "Good Angel" and "Bad Angel" who offer competing advice (Act 2, scene 1, etc.). Guardian angels appear in literary works of the medieval and Renaissance periods. Later the Anglican English physician and philosopher Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682), stated his belief in Religio Medici (part 1, paragraph 33): By the 19th century, the guardian angel was no longer viewed in Anglophone lands as an intercessory figure, but rather as a force protecting the believer from performing sin. A parody appears in Lord Byron's 1819 poem Don Juan: "Her guardian angel had given up his garrison" (Canto I, xvii). In Cardinal Newman's 1865 poem The Dream of Gerontius, the departed soul is met by his guardian angel. J. R. R. Tolkien talks of a Guardian Angel in several letters to his children. He described the Guardian Angel as "God's very attention itself, personalised". == In popular culture ==

• Clarence Odbody, the guardian angel in the 1946 film ''It's a Wonderful Life and the 1990 film Clarence'', "earned his wings" through bringing awareness that life was worth living to the 1946 film's protagonist, George Bailey. • Teen Angel, Frenchy's guardian angel in the 1978 film Grease, who advises her to return to high school in the song "Beauty School Dropout". == See also ==