My Dear Guardian Eng Sub

[Anthony Small]

Itwas the early nineties. We were a happy bunch of English literature graduate students of Calcutta University bent on having fun on campus even as we grappled with Shakespeare and Milton, TS Eliot and Virginia Woolf in the classroom. So, sometime in August-September of our MA first year, our rollicking group of friends set out on a four-day trip to Digha.

One morning as usual, many of us were marching to the beach for our ritual splash in the sea. We were dressed in frayed clothes and rubber flip-flops. Being an eager beaver, I was at the head of the group and racing to reach the sea that had receded and uncovered vast expanses of sand. The beach was a steep and sharp drop from the undulating road on which the seaside hotels were located. We had to clamber down jagged rocks and cross over huge boulders to get access to the beach.

My lifetime regret is that I never thanked him enough for saving my life. Neither did I keep in touch with him after university. Nor have I thought of him as my guardian angel before a book shone a light a couple of days ago.

As though from nowhere, she hears someone calling her name. Within seconds, the man she had met for the first time in the train in the morning walks up. He escorts her to a coffee shop, gets her a glass of iced water, sits with her till she is better, hails a cab, pays the cabbie $20 and sends her home.

Years later, a friend speaks to her about a book on Arctic mountaineers who claim to have experienced the mysterious presence of a guardian or a helper during snowstorms. The friend asks the woman if she believes in such presences. Of course, she replies, I do.

Choose one day of each month to honour your own good Angel Guardian; receive Holy Communion in his honour on that day, and having employed at least one quarter-of-an-hour after Communion in thanksgiving, reflect upon the great goodness of God, Whom you possess within you. Who knowing your weakness and the danger to which you are exposed both in soul and body and the difficulty you have of defending yourself against your enemies, has appointed over you one of His Angels, who are the princes of His Heavenly Court, and has given him orders to assist and defend you and never to leave you as long as your soul dwells in your body. Return His Divine Majesty most humble thanks for so great a favour, and admire the value he sets on your soul since He thus employs an angel in your service. Then with much piety address yourself to your own dear Angel Guardian. Thank him for accepting the charge of you, and since on his part he promises you four things and faithfully performs them, do you be as faithful in your performance as he is in his.

This contract being made between your good Angel and you, beg our dear Lord, Whom you have received, to bestow His benediction upon it. Then retire in company of your most faithful Angel, and in time to time entertain yourself with him during the rest of the day. Sometimes thank him for all the good services he has done you from the day of your birth, when he first began to take care of you until this present moment, reflecting on the chief ones, and next to God, attributing them to him.

Sometimes ask his pardon for having passed so many years of your life without thinking of him, for having so often saddened him by your imperfections, and for so seldom having recourse to him in your necessities, or thanking him for his benefits.

At other times open your heart to him, declaring openly your wants and begging him to solicit God on your behalf. Ask him to give you light in your doubts, help in dangers, comfort in your afflictions, victory over your enemies, and his particular assistance at the hour of your death.

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