Written by Father George Calciu

When God created the celestial hosts — seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, archangels, and angels — He established that the angels must be in an uninterrupted relationship with mankind. Among those angels, the guardian angels are the most kind and loving because they begin their mission in the world by taking care of children. They are sweet like children; they are gentle like children; and they are vulnerable and shy, just like children.

As the Akathist to the Guardian Angel states: they keepeth unceasing watch over one’s life. Their activity with the children grows and they never cease to love them despite the bad behavior of those children who become adults and no longer listen to the voice of their guardian angels. The angels never abandon their children during their life on earth; they never stop teaching their children nor stop praying to God for their salvation unto the end of their earthly lives.

I will tell you a short story about a guardian angel and the child given into his care. I read it in The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky. A girl was entrusted to her guardian angel. When the girl became an adult, she began to love money and riches, and was such a miser that she never gave anything to the poor who begged at her gate. After a miserable life, full of sins, her punishment was to remain in a pit of tar. Her guardian angel was very sad; he went up and down along the edge of the tar pit trying to remember if the old lady had done anything good in her life. Finally the good angel remembered that the woman had once given a scallion (an onion) to a beggar. He went up into heaven and fell down before the throne of God.

“Lord, this woman did do a good deed in her life. She gave a scallion to a needy one.”

“Alright,” answered God, “here you have the scallion. Take it; go to the pool and tell the woman to grab hold of the scallion, and pull her out from the tar. Be very careful — the onion is fragile.”

The happy angel took the scallion, went to the tar pit and called to the soul of the bad woman. “Look, soul,” said the angel, “this is the scallion you gave to a beggar. Grab it and I will carefully pull you out of the pool.”

The woman took hold of the scallion and the angel started to pull her out very slowly. The other souls, seeing that the angel was pulling the woman out, grabbed hold of the hem of her robe, hoping they would also be pulled out from the tar. When the woman felt the souls catching her hem, she started to curse and to hit them with her legs, screaming: “Let me alone, sinners, I’m the one who gave the scallion, not you. Go in the deep tar, you accursed ones!”

At the same moment, the scallion broke, and the women fell back into the pool of tar. And the angel began to cry in pain…

I have related this story to you so as to show that our Guardian Angel never abandons us; he is faithful to his mission; he loves the soul entrusted to him; he prays to God and whispers good counsels into our ear; he is the good conscience which teaches us the way to salvation. He exults joy when we follow his advice and cries when we turn a deaf ear to his voice.

Each person, good or bad, has a guardian angel. When a baby is born, God sends a guardian angel to teach him and to defend him against all danger, against temptation, against bad influences. When you are ready to commit a sin, an interior voice whispers in your hears: “Don’t do this!” When a danger threatens you, the same angelic voice prevents you: “Don’t go there!” or: “Avoid this person, or this group, or this intention!” If you preserve at least a small part of your child-like purity, a small part of your innocence, you will always hear the voice of your angel, guiding you through the vicissitudes of this life to a better place in Christian society, to a better community of people. You will feel the protection of God and your soul will be free from fear, uncertainty and doubt; and you will have the courage to face injustice, to love your neighbor and your enemy. You will walk in the light of God.

Sometimes you can see your guardian angel. On the right side of your head you can see a light, a special light, which is not like the sun’s light or the light of a lamp. It is a sweet light, something spiritual, coming from above and bringing you spiritual joy. You must understand by this that your guardian angel is there and tries to communicate with you. Say a prayer; purify your heart and mind; and remember that you have a friend who will never abandon you, even during those times when you are sinning.

Remember and be glad that a messenger of heaven visits you, and sing to him: “I proclaim aloud thy constant care for me, a sinner, O mine Angel Guardian; for amid the tribulations and temptations which trouble the peace of my soul in this most tumultuous world thou showest thyself to be a speedy comforter for me.” (Kontakion Six)

Your guardian angel will assist you in your last days; he will take your soul, defending against the attacks of the demons who will claim your soul because of the sins you committed during your life. Your angel will then proclaim that as long as you are not sentenced, you still belong to God. He will take you on a three-day journey to visit all the places on earth you have inhabited — whether briefly or for a long time — and he will remind you of all the good or bad deeds you committed. He will tell you: “Here, you prayed; here, you helped a sick person; there, you refused to help somebody,” and you will thus have in mind all the bad and good deeds of your life.

Guided by the angel, you will visit the realms of happiness occupied by the good souls and the unhappy realm of the bad ones — so as to understand that God is just, but that He is also good and merciful. you will discover on this journey if you have given away “a scallio0n” to a beggar, and thus your guardian angel will plead for you in front of the Supreme Judge.

And if the judgment be against you because of your many sins, do not forget that your guardian angel will not abandon you even if you are in “the pool of tar.” He will sustain a hope for your salvation until the Last Judgement, when the mercy of God may shower upon you and you may be called to the Kingdom of our Father, through the prayers of your guardian angel, amen.

From the “Akathist to the Guardian Angel Who Keepeth Unceasing Watch Over One’s Life” published by St. Paisius Monastery in Safford, Arizona