I could not let the day end without commenting on today's celebration, the Feast of the Guardian Angels.
During the 4th century, St. Basil declared, "That there is an angel for each one of the faithful no one will contradict." Since this feast day didn't make it onto the Church calendar until the 17th century, apparently a critical mass [so to speak] of faithful had their doubts. Perhaps they presciently envisioned the future schlock concocted by greeting card and figurine artistes?
Back in 2006, I was asked to weigh in on the [very weird if you ask me and someone did] practice of having children give their guardian angels names. Here's the unedited version of what I wrote in that Faith & Family Magazine column:
"I'd suggest not encouraging kids to concoct names for their guardian angels. Guardian angels are not our pets. It's way more likely that we are theirs. Anyway, their guardian angels probably already have names that might be discerned, perhaps while running a very high fever or at some point during eternal life."
The part about "running a very high fever" was edited out before publication.
