way, his father sent him out to look for a guide.  Young Tobias went out and found a beautiful young man to be his guide and he consented, and he brought Tobias to the distant city.  As they were on their way they sat down by the bank of a river.  Tobias went into the water near the edge, and soon a great fish rushed at him.  Tobias called to his guide.  The guide told him to take hold of the fish and drag it out upon the shore.  There they killed it, and kept part of its flesh for food and part for medicine.  Then they went on to the city, got the money and returned.  The guide told young Tobias to rub the part of the fish he had taken for medicine upon his father’s eyes.  He did so, and immediately his father’s eyes were cured and he saw.  Then both the father and son were so delighted with this young guide, that they offered to give him half of all they had.  He refused to take it and then told them he was the angel Raphael sent from God to be the guide of this good man’s son.  He told the old Tobias how he (the angel) had carried up to God his prayers and good works while he was burying the dead.  When they heard he was an angel they fell down and reverenced him, being very much afraid.  From this beautiful history we know that the angels carry our prayers and good works to God.  Again we learn from the Holy Scripture (Gen. 28) in the history of another good man almost the same thing.  The patriarch Jacob was on a journey, and being tired, he lay down to rest with his head upon a stone.  As he lay there he had a vision in which he saw a great ladder reaching up from earth to Heaven.  At the top he saw Almighty God standing, and on the ladder itself angels ascending and descending.  Now the holy Fathers of the Church tell us this is what is really taking place; the angels are always going down and up from God to man, though not on a ladder and not visibly as they appeared to Jacob.  Besides the guardian angel for each person, there are also guardian angels for each city and for each nation.

Again (Gen. 19) angels appeared to Lot to warn him about the destruction of the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrha.  Angels appeared also to the shepherds on the night Our Lord was born (Luke 2).  The catechism says angels have no bodies—­how, then, could they appear?  They took bodies made of some very light substance which would make them visible, and appeared just like beautiful young men, clad in flowing garments, as you frequently see them represented in pictures.  Angels were sometimes sent to punish men for their sins, as the angel who killed in one night 185,000 men in the army of the wicked king, Sennacherib, who blasphemed God, and was endeavoring to destroy Jerusalem, God’s city. (4 Kgs. 19).

But here is a difficulty.  If God Himself watches over us and sees all things, why should the angels guard us?  It is on account of God’s goodness to us; though it is not necessary.  He does not wish us to have any excuse for being bad, so He gives us each a special heavenly servant to watch and assist us by his prayers.  If a friend received us into his house and did all he could for us himself, we should certainly be satisfied, but if he gave us a special servant, though it would not be necessary, he would show us great respect and kindness.  Moreover whatever the angels do for us, we might say God Himself does, for the angels are only obeying His commands.