Angels Help Us: Discovering Divine Guidance

Joanne Wotypka is a branch library assistant in the Cameron Library at
the University of Alberta.

Angelology is big business these days. If Dr. Phil can’t solve your
problems, perhaps divine guidance is a better option. Angels Help Us
provides an introductory guide for those who would like to open their
lives to the power of angels.

Though a passing nod is given to angel-like beings from other
religions, the book’s focus is on the Christian angelic ideal. Indeed,
the brief outline of the Bodhisattva (from the Buddhist tradition) could
be misleading, so perhaps it is for the best that the book keeps to a
more “traditional” view of angels.

Porche and Vaughan guide the reader through the steps required to
connect with one’s own angel (following the tradition that each of us
has one, whether we know/accept it or not) and allowing that being’s
power to transform our lives for the better, and make our existence more
meaningful. Exercises are given for obtaining, maintaining, and
strengthening your connection with your angel.

As an introduction to types of angels, and a smattering of their
history, the book holds up its end of the bargain. For those interested
in connecting with angels, it could provide a gateway. However, I came
away with the feeling that angels are in danger of becoming another way
of coping with stress, the same way yoga, meditation, and other such
mechanisms have come into vogue lately. The danger is (as Western
society seems to demand the quick fix) that angelic help will be
appealed for, but with no lasting connection made.

Like all things religious, angels are not something to be taken for
granted.