Never travel faster than your guardian angel can fly

Mother Teresa  imparted much wisdom in her time. She was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in India in 1910, was of Albanian extraction, and served as a Catholic nun. She died in 1997 after serving the poor, sick and dying for 45 years. She founded and guided the Missionaries of Charity and received many honours including, in 1979, the Nobel Peace prize. She spoke 5 languages fluently - Bengali, Albanian, Serbo-Croatian, English and Hindi. After her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II, receiving the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

The quote "Never travel faster than your guardian angel can fly" is accredited to this remarkable woman. But what, exactly, does it mean? Many people interpret this as an admonition to keep yourself safe, never to put yourself in a position of danger. I think that interpretation could be rather limiting. What does danger mean? Surely what one person deems dangerous another may be excited by? And, if we are afraid, might we not end up doing nothing much at all?



For me, the quote implies a belief in a guardian angel in the first instance. This means that we have at our disposal a super power, an agent that has our best interests at heart and who is going to guide and protect us, allowing us to achieve great things.

The quote suggests that we each have a guardian angel, which may fly at a different speed to another guardian angel. How fast, then, can your angel fly? Is the speed of our own angel determined by how fast we believe they can fly? Does this mean we can set the speed of our own angel? Do they come with a predetermined top speed or can we tune them up to fly faster? Personally, I think that if you believe in a guardian angel, you are also in a position to determine your angel's speed. Which, in turn, means that you are setting the limitations of your angel, your protector. You control whether you can be James Bond or Superman in any given situation.

But does this mean that unless we believe in a guardian angel, we will not be able to achieve remarkable, maybe superhuman, actions? What about those people who don't believe in angels yet still accomplish seemingly impossible feats?

I'm sure many of us have heard of extraordinary deeds such as the story of 22 year old Lauren Kornacki who lifted a car that had fallen onto her father, thereby helping to save his life.  This and many other similar stories have been explained scientifically as an extreme adrenalin rush that empowers the brain and muscles to perform actions that seem inconceivable.

What is it that causes the adrenalin rush? Do these people believe in angels and call on them when they need help lifting cars? Does it mean that invoking a guardian angel creates the adrenalin rush?

It seems not. In many of these cases the primary motivator for the adrenalin rush has been concern, derived from love or a strong sense of duty. People report not thinking about what to do, but finding themselves simply doing these amazing things.

It seems that believing in a guardian angel is not really necessary. All we need is a strong motivator and adrenalin.So why is it that people believe in guardian angels? Why do they not simply invest belief in themselves, in their own powers?

I think that believing in a guardian angel is a powerful way to believe in ourselves, to relieve ourselves of limiting thoughts about our own capabilities. It's a tool, a way to access our own hidden super powers.

Whether we are able to believe in ourselves directly, or whether we believe in a guardian angel, either way, our potential achievements are only limited by the scope of our beliefs. By how fast we believe our guardian angels (or our higher selves) can fly.