Hearth & Altar

God asks Job a question that is like one that has kept every parent awake at night once or twice - how much do you really control? Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the morning? Job has not. Neither have you. The sun comes up on a house where nobody slept and a house where everyone did - the sun rises and falls at God's command, not ours.

You are not the one holding the night together. The children sleep, and someone else keeps watch over them - not only you.

The Gospel says who. Jesus warns his disciples not to despise the little ones, because their angels in heaven always look upon the face of his Father. Each child has one. Your children are never, for one minute, left with only you.

That does not excuse a parent from staying alert. It changes what the alertness is. You are watching next to someone, and you are not alone at the post. When you check the hallway light or listen at a door, you are joining a watch that already exists.

Today is the Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels. It is also First Friday, the day many Catholics receive Communion in honor of the Sacred Heart. It is a good day for a family to hand the night over on purpose.

• For our children, that their guardian angels would keep them through the night, we pray to the Lord.
• For parents who lie awake, that they would rest in the watch that is not theirs alone, we pray to the Lord.
• For every child who is afraid of the dark, that they would be given peace, we pray to the Lord.
• For our family on this First Friday, that we would draw near to the Heart of Jesus, we pray to the Lord.

Tonight at bedtime, teach or repeat the Angel of God prayer with each child. Say it slowly, one line at a time, and let them say it back to you.

The Angel of God prayer is one of the oldest bedtime prayers Catholic children learn. It goes: "Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God's love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen." The Church has kept a memorial for the guardian angels on October 2 since the seventeenth century.

One caution from the Church. Do not give your child's angel a name. The Church discourages naming angels beyond the three named in Scripture, Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. A child who wants to name their angel can say "my angel" and leave it there.

Today's practice is small. When you tuck each child in, make the sign of the cross on their forehead and say the prayer together. Do it every night this week. By this time next week they will be reminding you.