Who is the guardian angel? The “imaginary” friend we were taught to invoke as children? Is he a mythical figure to be relegated to distant times, when we were naïve, gullible people who were reassured by the telling of a “little fairy tale”?
None of this. The guardian angel is the real friend whom the Lord has placed at our side to accompany us throughout our lives. Perhaps some of us have forgotten him, leaving him in some far-off drawer of the soul. And yet his presence is real, at times even more real and faithful than that of the people beside us. The saints know this, and their experiences remind us of it.
Always in the company of her guardian angel
Today we want to remember Saint Gemma Galgani (1878-1903), a young woman from Lucca who, together with her most faithful guardian angel, experienced incredible things.
She saw him, spoke with him, prayed with him, and asked him for every kind of help. For his part, he spared no generosity, but neither did he spare admonishments and corrections.
Daily help
When Gemma had to communicate something to her confessor, who was in Rome, she entrusted the message to her guardian angel, and he duly delivered it to him.
He was a constant presence and, in addition to protecting the young woman, also gave her advice on living an intense interior life. As she herself recounts in her writings, he told her: “Remember, my daughter, that the soul who loves Jesus speaks little and denies herself greatly. In Jesus’ name, I order you never to give your opinion unless you are asked for it, and never to defend your opinion, but to yield immediately.” He added: “When you commit some fault, tell it immediately without waiting to be asked.”
A demanding and caring friend
The guardian angel was also a demanding friend. Gemma recounts that once she went to visit some relatives wearing - with a little vanity - the jewelry they had given her; on that occasion she distinctly heard her heavenly friend say to her: «Remember that the precious necklaces that adorn the bride of a crucified King can only be his thorns and his Cross.»
But if it is true that the guardian angel asked a great deal of Gemma, it is also true that he never failed to comfort her. Whenever, for any reason, the Saint particularly needed company and support, she would ask him to stay with her always, and when evening came, she would fall asleep. The following morning, upon waking, she would find him sitting on her bed, ready for his Gemma.
Certainly, Saint Gemma Galgani’s experience contains much that is “extraordinary,” but within it we can certainly find something that can enlighten us inwardly. Her frank and friendly relationship with her guardian angel can open us to the world of the invisible, but not the unreal. That world that everyone keeps within their soul and that is inhabited by the guardian angel, a friend who never leaves us and whom we can feel close by learning to speak to him and pray together with him.
