• October 2, 2025, Today’s Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET
• The Audio Podcast of this Rosary is Available Here Now!
Friends of the Rosary,
Today, October 2, the Church celebrates the Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels.
Today’s feast appeared in Spain during the sixteenth century as an invitation to pray to our guardian angels, and it was extended to the universal Church one century later.
It’s a truth of our faith that the moment of conception, when the soul is infused, a personal guardian angel is assigned to each person, with the mission of watching over him and helping to attain salvation.
This protection continues throughout our earthly life. The guardian angel accompanies our soul to purgatory or heaven, and becomes our coheir in the heavenly kingdom.
Guardian angels are servants and messengers from God — “Angel” in Greek means messenger.
These spirits guide us to heaven only if we desire it. Because, as St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, angels cannot act directly upon our will or intellect.
They protect us from physical danger in unseen ways, assist us in our work and studies, and help us resist temptation.
From the Gospel of today’s liturgy, we read: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father” (Matthew 18:10).
We are invited to cherish a reverence for our guardian angel, not doubting his presence because we do not see him.
These spirits — a kind of trustworthy, intelligent, and strong bodyguards — are sent by the Father to be our protectors and our guides. We follow and remain close to them, to dwell in the protection of the Most High.
As St. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote, “Call out to him and say: Lord, save us, we are perishing.”
And, by the way, the Mother Church discourages the practice of assigning names to the Holy Angels, except in the cases of Gabriel, Raphael, and Michael, whose names are contained in Holy Scripture.
The prayer to the guardian angels has been present in the Church since at least the beginning of the 12th century:
Angel of God,
my Guardian dear,
to whom His love
commits me here,
ever this day
be at my side,
to light and guard,
to rule and guide.
Amen.
Ave Maria!
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
To Jesus through Mary!
Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
Please give us the grace to respond with joy!
+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New York
Enhance your faith with the new Holy Rosary University app:
Apple iOS | New! Android Google Play
