Angels are a big deal in San Miguel, which makes sense considering the town was named for Saint Michael, the most famous angel, after Lucifer, the fallen angel.
Michael is an archangel, the first level on angel created to look human. The most popular type of angel is a guardian angel. A guardian angel is assigned to you at birth for protection during life on Earth and guiding you into Heaven upon death. Basically an unpaid traveling companion while on this earthly plane. It matters not what faith one has or hasn’t, the guardian angel is simply part of being human. They’ve been believed in since the start of recorded history and an adopted concept to the Catholic Church.
As a child growing up in Chocolatetown, USA we were told to make room in our desk seat for our guardian angel. Skinny Patty True sat behind me (True follows Toone in alphabetical seating). Patty apparently had a chubby angel as he (she? Hershey?) literally nudged Patty onto the floor much to Sr. Mary Torture’s consternation and my personal amusement.
Guardian angels basically hang around and help you with your spiritual, and material, concerns. What some consider intuition, or the voice of God, others believe is your guardian angel chatting you up. Your angel has several ways to communicate….
- Coincidences – Many, including myself, don’t believe there are any and that the event was meant to occur for reason. Coincidences are attributed to the work of your guardian angel.
- Numbers – Your angel knows what numbers are meaningful to you and will place them around. For instance, at least once a day I notice the time is 10:10, my birthday, so I cheerfully wish myself a mental happy birthday!
- Feathers – Find feathers in odd places? I found three of them in two days recently on my shirt. They, like little shiny stones and coins that catch the eye, are believed to be little gifts from your angel.
- Something Amiss – A painting suddenly hung upside down or other oddity that wasn’t there a minute ago. That’s your angel simply saying hello. Mine moves about the cat picture my son painted in middle school. (Sure, it could be the cleaning lady but that would imply she dusted. God knows I don’t!)
- Flowers – Suddenly you smell a bouquet of flowers when none are around. It seems angels smell lovely.
- Baby Visions – As every parent, and most pet owners, have seen there are times when babies and pets see something you do not. I remember having my baby, cat and dog all sitting together watching something scoot about the room much to their fascination with all three heads turning in unison. I saw nothing of my guardian angel.
It is best to catch your angel when he or she whispers to you. Because if they end up yelling at you it will be a really bad day. Particularly for you. For centuries, Dominican clergy have been encouraged to name their guardian angel to facilitate the celestial communication.
Most every market in town features angel wings for purchase you can place on a wall. Frankly, they make me think there is some wingless guardian angel gimping about pouting over the loss of their wings.
There is a subset of guardian angels you’ll see in every church in town. They are the pair of angels that always surround Jesus in any form (baby, Eucharist, etc.) They are called Custodian Angels and never look at you. Rather their focus in on Jesus and normally have matching, if slightly different, clothing and body types.
I have a Custodian Angel in my bedroom from a church torn down in France while I worked in the Parisian embassy. He’s sad, holding a candle stand seeming discontent to have only me to watch over, not Jesus, and knowing his twin didn’t survive the border crossing into Mexico. Learn from me, never separate custodian angels, they don’t bounce back with grace, which is surprising for an angel!
Joseph Toone is the Historical Society’s short-story award winning author of the SMA Secrets book series. All books in the series are Amazon bestsellers in Mexican Travel and Holidays. Toone is SMA’s expert and TripAdvisor’s top ranked historical tour guide telling the stories behind what we do in today’s SMA. Visit HistoryAndCultureWalkin
