A Child's Prayer

The other day a dear friend of mine forwarded me an email with the subject line: International Angel Day. In it was a picture of an angel and a quote from Leonard Cohen:

If we forget to pray for the angels, the angels forget to pray for us.

This morning as I said my prayers, I pictured myself as that young school boy in church or kneeling by my bedside, saying my prayers, my heart full of expectancy and hope.

As a boy I put my heart and soul into prayers and it is no wonder that prayer has such a healing influence on me these days, as it brings back some of the strength and passion of my youth.

I remember when we were living on MacDonald Street (about 14 years ago now) in the house where Kadir was born, I ran into a stranger at Kits Neighborhood House one day. He was a middle aged man with a French Canadian accent, searching for a place to live and scouring the notice boards there. He asked if I knew of any places for rent.

“Not off the top of my head”, I replied.

“Well what about around the sides of your head, or at the back here?” He demonstrated by touching his scalp at the spots he described.

I was not sure what to make of the person or of this challenge, but we got into a conversation and soon he became an infrequent visitor to the family home. Eventually we found him temporary accommodation at the home of a friend nearby.

To thank us, he appeared at the house one day and summoned me outside.

“I have something I would like to give to your children, but I wanted to ask your permission first”, he said. He opened the trunk of his car and inside were two boxes containing new roller blades.

As we were unloading them, he reminded me of something I knew as a child. He asked if I had ever heard of the “Angel of God” prayer.

I had not thought about this prayer for a long time, but my mother taught it to me and as a child I always said it.

Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love entrusts me here, ever this day/night be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide, Amen.

He told me that he always said this prayer and that he felt it had tremendous power and suggested I teach it to my children.

I had taught my children this prayer when they were small, but had forgotten about it over the past few years and never really recited it myself as an adult.

He also gave me a book on the subject of spirituality although I can’t recall the name and title of it but I do remember that I started saying this prayer again as we had to move and could not find a place to live that we could afford.

The angels must have listened!

To this day I still say the Guardian Angel prayer every morning and at the end of it, add the names of family, friends and anyone that I think is in need of healing or divine protection.