In a post below, Peter talks about having had an experience of being saved--guided --and wonders whether that was attributable to a guardian angel. I have sometimes had such experiences too.

But then, sometimes, when I read the news, I wonder whether I am being too smug. Where were the guardian angels of the little Amish girls who were lined up and shot at point blank range in a one room school house? For that matter, where was the guardian angel of the tormented man who did this (I think an earlier age might well have described such a man as demonically possessed)?

I'm not looking for theology--I know the theology. But existentially, how does one go about living, and praying for more blessings to be heaped upon an already blessed life, and praying for small sufferings to be avoided in a life that, compared to the rest of the world, doesn't have much suffering, without being too self-involved and smug?

I remember that Notre Dame ran an ad last year during football season which showed a young girl praying for admission. And getting the "yes" letter was an answer to her prayers. I winced at the ad, because I thought about all the people that got a "no" letter, and how they'd feel.