CHAPTER II.
THE HONOUR AND VENERATION OF THE SAINTS. AND
PARTICULARLY THE ANGEL GUARDIAN.
The holy angels are to be honoured with a particular devotion, on account of the superior dignity of the angelic nature, as well as the peculiar love which they bear to us, and the benefits they confer on us. For though in essence they are spirits, the noblest of all creatures, denizens of the court of God, and always beholding the face of the Father who is in heaven, yet, as St. Bernard says, this does not deprive us of their affectionate ministry; for while they inhabit the heavens, they do not despise the earth. For they are all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation.
They love their fellow-citizens, says St. Austin, whom they expect to fill the vacancies that were made by their own fall. And therefore at all times, and in all places, they earnestly and anxiously watch us, to succour us, and provide for our wants. They accompany us in all our ways, they go in and out with us, and observe attentively how piously and honestly we live in the midst of a corrupt people.
They assist us in our labours, they protect us in our repose, they encourage us in combat, they crown us in victory. They rejoice with us when we rejoice, and suffer with us when we suffer. "When we do well, the angels rejoice, and the devils are sorry. When we go astray from good, we gladden the devil, and defraud the angels of their joy.
We should honour with particular devotion our tutelar angels, to whose charge God has committed us, to keep us in all our ways. And we should often praise in them the mercy of God, who has provided us with so faithful and powerful a protector against the wiles of our maligant enemy, and the various perils of this life.
It is, moreover, a devotion most pleasing to them, and most profitable to us, to reverence at all times, and in all places, the presence of the angels. St. Bernard gives us this excellent precept: Maintain thy reverence alike in every corner where thou goest. Durst thou do in his presence what thou durst not in mine? Philosophers have determined, that there is no more effectual method of resisting evil, than merely to
