In the presence of the angels I will sing your praise!

If you've been following our blog for the past 9 years you might remember that Oct 2, Feast of the Guardian Angels, is a very special day for our community. Why? Because on this day 94 years ago in 1919 Mother Mary Imelda and 14 nuns from the Monastery of the Perpetual Rosary in Union City took up residence in the Ter Mer estate establishing another sanctuary of praise to God and the Blessed Mother.

That house is no more; 20 years later the community, cramped into that house on New England, moved into the monastery we have today on Springfield Ave. At the place where the first monastery stood is now a shrine to our Lady of the Rosary.

It's fitting that this community, living what the Fathers of the Church call "the angelic life", should have begun on this feast of the angels; those creatures of God, who, as today's Gospel tell us, "always look upon the face of my heavenly Father."

Every person, every city, country, etc. has a special angel appointed by God to protect them and to bring God to them because angels are foremost "messengers".  And a place like a monastery where God is adored night and day is a place especially of the angels. Our monastery choir is flanked by stately carved wooden angels reminding us of the awesome privilege we have been given to adore and love God "in the presence of the angels". It is act of everlasting adoration and praise that we have been invited to participate in!

Today provides us with an opportunity to rekindle devotion to our Guardian Angels. We can so easily forget that they are God's gift to us! "For he will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways" we sing at Compline every Sunday night!