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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Fr Dermot Preston

The Angel

Good morning.

It was 1989 and just before the last ‘white-only’ election in South Africa. I was on my way to an ecumenical prayer-meeting in a stadium in the township of Soweto.

The apartheid government had banned the gathering that morning and paramilitary police had cordoned-off the venue. It was before mobile phones but we had heard a rumour that, as an alternative venue, anybody who made it through would be welcomed at the small, local Catholic Church.

In the event, there were only about 80 of us. It was a peaceful encounter with some hymns and a couple of speeches.

But then the police found us, they surrounded the building, and informed the Methodist Bishop presiding that unless we stopped and went home NOW, they could not guarantee there would be no blood-shed.

Thus reluctantly, defiantly and slightly afraid we filed out through a corridor of constables with whips and barking police dogs.

The fact that no one was harmed that day was thanks to the presence of a guardian angel. He had no wings, he said nothing, and made no speeches, but he was there. He was a junior diplomat from the Canadian Embassy.

In the latter days of apartheid, it was policy of the Canadians to quietly dispatch personnel to meetings and potential flash-points, providing a low key protective check, deterring the Government from random acts of violence and risk an international incident.

I was reminded of this occasion because today is the feast of The Guardian Angels, which celebrates the long tradition of the presence of God’s protective emissaries in our midst.

Lord, let your angels, in all their many guises, continue to protect, challenge and walk alongside us; let them remind us that, despite the trials we may face, we are never alone.

Amen.

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