Praised be Jesus and Mary Now and forever.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that we each have an angel with us at our side for our whole life to protect us and to lead us to life, to eternal life. These guardian angels are always at work, protecting us in many ways. Although I don't have a personal guardian angel story of my own, at least I don't have a story that I'm aware of that I can tell—although I know my guardian angel is always at work, as he is for each and every one of you—I do know a priest who has a great story.
In fact, he wrote his story for *Meseo* Magazine, the current issue in the back of the chapel, and I'd like to share with you just a very abridged version of this story. Father Kurt Vogel from Kansas City, Missouri. I'll just read his story. Great homily material.
So he says, I was born in July 1988 in Pleasant Hill, Missouri. He grew up in a devout Catholic family. We prayed the rosary together on a regular basis, attended Sunday Mass and Mass even on Holy Days of Obligation, as all Catholics should, and even on Wednesday evenings.
As I was growing older, at the age of three, my parents began to suspect that I had a speech impediment. I was tested and it turned out that I did. So at the young age of four, I started taking speech therapy classes at the University of Central Missouri. As time moved forward with my speech classes, I was not making the progress that I should have been making. Over the course of two years, I had not advanced to where I needed to be, and the therapists were suggesting more intense therapy to see some progress happen.
Long story short, during this time in my life, family life was becoming busy. My mom was becoming increasingly taxed and was not finding enough time to fulfill all her duties. She simply could not find the time to get everything done, even after pleading to God for help. So she decided to create her own time by not going to sleep for three days straight. And day number three, without sleep, was the day that we were supposed to drive to my speech therapy classes.

I was six years old at this point in the front seat of the car, and I could see my mom next to me driving down the highway and getting sleepier and sleepier and sleepier. And she did fall asleep right there on the highway. When mom fell asleep, many things happened at once. First, we drifted into the grassy median that divided the highway from the opposing traffic. My mother at that same time felt something. She felt the wings of her guardian angel, a firm yet gentle grip that clasped over her hands on the steering wheel.
A bunch of other things are happening, but in that exact moment, I, the six-year-old boy in the front seat with a dramatic speech impediment that had not advanced by much over two years in speech therapy, started speaking clearly for the first time in my life. I said, Mom, Mom, you fell asleep. Mom, we're in the middle of the highway. Mom!
And while all of the above was happening, we ended up doing eight full rotations in our van on the grassy median. Our van, however, never flipped over, but we did eight full circuits. I remember the grass whirling around us like we were in the middle of a tornado.
When we finally stopped spinning, Mom got her bearings, drove and parked on the shoulder of the highway, got out, walked around the van, and at the same time, a skinny lady with neck-length jet-black hair in a small, super sky-blue car parked behind my mom, leaving space in between the two vehicles so the two of them could talk. The lady, the anonymous lady, got out of her car and asked my mom, Are you all right? I saw you drive off the highway into the median. Is everything okay?
My mom replied, I'm doing okay. And the lady responded, Look, take the time you need and I'll wait here with you. Once you feel ready, I'll drive behind you to make sure you are safe. So Mom takes about 15 minutes to calm down, recuperate. Then she got back into the van, pulled onto the highway again with the lady following behind us in her car.
After about one or two miles driving down the highway, my mom asked me, Son, do you still see that lady with her light-blue car behind us? My mom could not see her. I looked to see if I could see her, but I never did. Mom and I eventually made it to my speech therapy classes, and obviously, everybody was just dumbfounded. This boy, who had made no progress in two years, all of a sudden is speaking clearly. His speech impediment cured. Not only were they not hurt in that accident, the boy's speech impediment just went away. And in fact, this is a big point in his vocation story, right? The name of the article is *Thank You, God, for Giving Me My Voice.* I will be one of Your priests, but you can read the full-length article if you wish.
Reflecting on this extraordinary life experience, my mother and I have accepted that what she felt—the force, whatever she felt on her hands—were the wings of her guardian angel helping her to not flip the van, helping her to minimize the effects of swerving off the highway at high speed. The skinny lady with the neck-length jet-black hair in the small sky-blue car was my guardian angel.
And the truth of this lady's car being sky-blue, and when I say sky-blue, I mean as blue or more blue than an exceptional spring day sky-blue, means that it was Our Lady who took care of the two of us that day, sending our guardian angels to be extra hands-on. And I've always had a deep love for Our Lady, whom I usually call Mother Mary, because I know she'll always take care of this priest since she clearly has, ever since I was a small boy.
Each one of us has a guardian angel on our side, protecting us at all times, in ordinary ways, extraordinary ways. Sometimes we have amazing stories, sometimes we don't even realize what these angels do for us, but they're always with us. Our Lady's always sending them to help us out. Let's not forget that. Let's be grateful to them, to Our Lady, Queen of the Angels, and to our holy guardian angels as well.

Praised be Jesus and Mary Now and forever.