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The Holy Guardian Angel daily and hourly guides me on the path of salvation. I see this with the eyes of my heart, I feel it and thank God and God’s steward (4). Everywhere in the world there is duality - one against the other: spirit and body, good and evil. Satan has his minions 1 and assistants to spread his dominion among people; God has Angels, whom he gives to every Christian to protect him and to guide him to the blessed kingdom of Christ (6). Those who lead a spiritual life see with the eyes of their hearts how the devil works, how the Angels guide, how the Lord sovereignly allows temptations and how he comforts (6). If the Guardian Angels did not protect us from the machinations of evil demons, oh, how often would we then fall from sin to sin, how would we then be tormented by demons who delight in tormenting people, which is what happens when the Lord allows the Guardian Angel to retreat for a while and the demons to plot over us. Yes, the Angels of the world, faithful mentors, guardians of our souls and bodies, are always with us, unless we voluntarily drive them away from ourselves with the abomination of carnality, pride, doubt, and unbelief. It’s as if you feel that they are covering you with the wings of their immaterial glory, and you just don’t see them. Good thoughts, dispositions, words and deeds come from them (6). By honoring the Angels, we become aligned with that life-giving conviction that there is another world of rational beings, completely pure, simple, incorporeal, and that, therefore, the existence of our soul after death is not only a possible matter, but also a real, existing one. And by honoring the saints, we again get used to the idea that there is life for us after death, that virtue and holiness are rewarded after death, which means that if we live virtuously, we will also be rewarded, that evil is punished, as is presented in the Gospel story about the rich man and Lazarus, which means that we will also be punished for the evil that we do here. In general, the veneration of Angels and saints does not reflect any polytheism, it is completely in our nature and leads to significant spiritual benefits (7). The presence of a Guardian Angel with every true Christian is necessary because the bodies of Christians are, according to the testimony of the Word of God, temples of the Holy Spirit, and Christians themselves are members of the body of Christ, sanctified by His suffering on the cross and death, sealed by His Sacraments, in which the grace of the Holy Spirit is communicated to us; especially because we partake of the very Body and Blood of Christ in the Sacrament of Communion. The dignity of a Christian person as a member of the body of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit certainly requires the presence of a Guardian Angel with him as our elder brother and friend, who guides us to the common Lord of all in the kingdom of light and bliss. If “there is joy among the Angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10), then we must judge by this what a strong part the Angels of the Lord take in our salvation (7). The Holy Angels and other Heavenly Powers are filled with integral, holy life, inviolable peace, indestructible cheerfulness, eternal courage and strength, indescribable beauty, light, high intelligence, the purest love for God and people, mutual friendship, insight and enlightenment. Such are our holy Guardian Angels. Wonderful angelic nature! But Christians who are worthy to reach the future age and the resurrection from the dead will be equal to the Angels, according to the word of the Lord Himself (7). Christian! You will copulate with the Angels, Archangels, all the Heavenly Powers: imitate the Angels, despise the earthly, love the heavenly, eternal, spiritual, avoid worldly passions, do not enslave the belly, the demon of the love of money, be kind, meek, quiet like an Angel, pure like an Angel, simple, holy like him (7). Imagine the Angel of God in the image of a human soul, that is, the Angel is like your soul. That is why Angels appear in human form, because they have a nature similar to the human soul, only sinless, holy and higher (7). Does everyone have Guardian Angels? There are and there should be. The nature of the spirit is unusually active and cannot help but act; we see this in our souls. The nature of a good spirit necessarily seeks activity and expansion of the circle of this activity, the expansion of the kingdom of truth and goodness, just as, on the contrary, the nature of an evil spirit seeks corresponding activity and expansion of the kingdom of lies and all evil. That demons are trying in every possible way to spread the kingdom of evil - we feel this in ourselves, and the Holy Scripture testifies to this: “the devil walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). How can one not allow, even at the request of common sense, the truth that Angels act everywhere in the world, try to spread the kingdom of goodness and seek human salvation! Oh, the word is true that in heaven “there is joy among the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Lk. 15:10), and just as the devil is with every person, so a good Angel is also with every person; We clearly feel both the presence of that and the presence of that, although out of pride we are accustomed to attribute all good thoughts, feelings, dispositions and intentions to ourselves, and not to the Guardian Angel. Will there be enough Guardian Angels for every person? Enough and in abundance. When the Apostle Peter rushed with a knife at the bishop’s servant to defend his Teacher and Lord, the Lord said to him: “Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will present to Me more than twelve legions of Angels?” (Matthew 26:53). This means that the Lord always has them in abundance to protect every person (Elisha, Jacob), and especially for the Son of God incarnate. It is also known that the Guardian Angel appeared to the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane to strengthen Him; “The angels came and served Him” (Matthew 4:11) after forty days of fasting and temptation in the desert; The Guardian Angel of the Infant Savior appeared to Joseph in a dream and controlled his movements (7). Angels have a spiritual, immaterial, subtle, immortal nature, free from all corruption, but limited, not like the Lord Himself, the Spirit, existing everywhere and one, beginningless and filling everything. He brought the Angels from non-existence into being, sanctified them with His word and, for their inflexibility towards evil, confirmed them unfailingly by the Holy Spirit (that is, they can no longer fall into sin). Their nature is full of wonderful, unflickering light, holiness, goodness, beauty, wisdom, strength, immortality, fiery love for the Creator and for each other and for people, whose salvation they rejoice and wish to have them as their eternal citizens in the country of eternal light and incorruptibility, peace and joy. Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, a disciple of the Apostle Paul, raptured by the Holy Spirit to the third heaven, heard from him a mysterious teaching about the angelic world, wrote it down and passed it on to the Church. The angelic world is divided into nine orders, and these are each divided into three orders. The first and most luminous Angels (Michael and Gabriel), like the bright dawn of the Beginningless Trinity, stand directly before the flaming throne of God, are illuminated by His impregnable light and provide enlightenment and knowledge of the mysteries of God to the ranks that follow them, and the lower ranks are governed in a worldly manner by the higher ones. Such heavenly citizenship, such a worldly, holy, blessed, blessed Council of celestial beings is called the heavenly hierarchy, in the earthly hierarchy or hierarchy of the Orthodox Church (12). Klevret (Old Slavonic, from Latin Col-libertlis - fellow freedman) - comrade, brother. Here and further, if not marked, approx. ed. You might be interested in: