Childhood Protector: Mi Angel De La Guardia

I can still recall the sense of peace I felt as a child looking at this image my mother kept of our Guardian Angel, a print that long outlived the calendar once attached to it.
God, if only I could continue to believe that I am constantly protected from evil by this beautiful angelic creature.

But now I have become a skeptic, a disbeliever, a non-believer. My wife still teaches one of our grandsons to pray to his Guardian Angel before he goes to sleep each night. The beautiful phrase "No me desampares.." rings in my mind, "Never abandon me...." It's beauty haunts me.

My prayers still go out from me most nights, but now to some vague entity beyond us, respresenting goodness and love, which transcends the earthly evil that pervades. Please, Guardian Angel, protect us from ourselves. No nos desampares.....