Angels

According to St. Thomas Aquinas, angels cannot read our thoughts. “God alone can know the thoughts of hearts and affections of wills.”

But the angels—our guardian angels especially—can often tell what we’re thinking based on physical cues such as facial expressions. It makes sense, if you think about it. A family member or a good friend can often tell what we’re thinking or feeling just by the slump of our shoulders or very slight smile on our faces.

​“Angels can know specific thoughts that we willfully desire to communicate with them…Therefore, as soon as we make the decision to speak with or to pray to the angels, they will become aware of what we want to communicate to them.”

—Fr. Matthew Hincks, ORC, Opus Sanctorum Angelorum

courtesy of The Catholic Company
​
Angel of God, my guardian dear,
to whom God’s love commits me here,
ever this day be at my side,
to light and guard, to rule and guide.​

Title: Archangel Raphael and Tobit
Artist: attrib. to Titian, born c. 1488/1490, died 1576
Date painted: c. 1542
Location: Gallerie dell'Accademia
Date acquired: 1815, after Napoleonic suppressions
Last restored: 1994