Writing about angels might seem to be a displacement activity, given the world’s myriad problems and the Church’s own internal difficulties. But as Fr John Horgan’s highly readable and persuasive His Angels at Our Side (EWTN/Gracewing, 304pp, £15.50) shows, angels are both at the heart of the Church’s mission and perfect examples of the providence of God.
The author, a Harvard graduate and a priest in British Columbia, has a lifelong interest in angels and saints – as he shows, unsurprisingly they often go together.
His book is scripturally knowledgeable, theologically erudite and pastoral at its heart, reminding readers that enlisting the help of one’s guardian angel is a sure way to find help, guidance and inspiration. If the goal of the Christian life is to “enter into communion with Christ”, friendship with one’s guardian angel is to come to know a “unique friendship, a marvellous relationship”. Fr Horgan reminds us that angels are mentioned in Scripture more than 230 times – when you start to appreciate this, you discover their ministry everywhere in the Old and New Testaments.
