Editor's Note
Guardian Angels
I’m glad to note from letters and emails that many of you are enjoying learning about your priests in the “Did You Know?” feature in NCCatholics and on our Diocesan Web site. This month I was struck by the answer of Father Romen Acero, Parochial Vicar at St. Thomas More Parish in Chapel Hill, to the question, “What was your most memorable spiritual pilgrimage?”
He responded: “The day I denied part of myself and went to the heart of a neighbor in need and came to realize that Jesus was truly present there.”
What a profound insight! And to think that this pilgrimage is offered to each of us, free of charge, every day. In fact, many of the articles in NCC over the years have been about people making this very journey to the Lord. This issue, which features “first responders” – police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel -- offers a dramatic example of people who deny their natural fear in order to help their neighbors in need, and who find Jesus in the people they serve.
Many of us can be moved by the picture of a firefighter carrying a child out of a burning building. But not all the people these heroes serve are obviously “lovable,” except in the eyes of the Lord. The poor and homeless, the addicts and prostitutes, the mentally ill -- the neglected and the self-neglectful – often require help just as critically as a burglarized homeowner. Police fight crime, but like firefighters and paramedics, they are constantly vigilant for situations where they can help those in trouble. Their vigilance can be an example for all of us who profess faith.
The Diocesan Blue Mass for first responders was offered in October on the Feast of the Guardian Angels, and during the liturgy I recalled the old Prayer to my Guardian Angel that I would say as a child and later as a parent with my own children: “Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here: Ever this day be at my side, to light, to guard, to rule and guide. Amen.” Thanks be to God for our brothers and sisters who “light, guard, rule and guide” us when we are in danger.
Thanks for your letters and emails and kind suggestions. You can reach me at 715 Nazareth Street, Raleigh, NC 27606 or reece@raldioc.org.