The Guardian Angel Prayer
"Angel of God, my guardian dear." The first prayer many Catholics ever learn — and one a father teaches his children.
It is small enough for a child to learn and true enough for a grown man to mean. The Guardian Angel Prayer rests on something the Church has always held: that God assigns to every human soul an angel to guard and guide it. A Catholic father teaches his children these four lines early — and goes on praying them himself.
The Guardian Angel Prayer
Angel of God
When to pray it
Pray it in the morning ("ever this day") to place the day under your angel's guard, and teach it to children at bedtime and on waking. It is a natural prayer before a journey, before anything dangerous, and any time you sense you need protection and guidance. Some pray it with the line "ever this night" in the evening.
What the Church teaches about guardian angels
The devotion is not folklore. "From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession," the Catechism teaches; "beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life" (CCC §336). Christ Himself warns against despising the little ones, "for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father" (Matthew 18:10). The angel does not replace God's providence — it serves it, a created servant assigned to lead a soul home.