Tolkien and Angels

Want to hear something nice?

I read that, in one of his letters to a friend, J. R. R. Tolkien described a meditation he had while at Eucharistic Adoration.  As he was kneeling in prayer, his mind wandered, as did his eye, and he caught a reflective glimpse of a piece of dust, floating in a sunbeam. He turned from contemplating the Eucharist to contemplating this piece of dust, and a sudden thought surprised him.

We are these pieces of dust, but, more importantly, that ray of sunlight is our Guardian Angel.  Indeed, as a ray of light, it is an apt and very vivid metaphor for God’s personalized attentive love of each and every one of us.  We are bathed, brightened, and warmed in it.

Nice.  I especially like that ray of light spoken of as a Guardian Angel. 

I don’t think I’ll ever see a ray of sunlight streaming through a church’s stained glass window the same way again.