What is the role of the Guardian Angels in our life?

When you reflect on your life so far, you can probably think of many times when it seemed that a guardian angel was watching over you - from driving or encouraging you at the right time, to a dramatic rescue from a dangerous situation.

Do you have only one guardian angel that God has personally assigned to accompany you throughout your life on earth or do you have a huge amount of guardian angels who could potentially help you or other people if God chooses them for the job?

Some people believe that every person on Earth has their own guardian angel who focuses primarily on helping that person throughout the person's life. Others believe that people receive help from various guardian angels as needed, with God matching the skills of the guardian angels with the ways a person needs help at any given time.

Catholic Christianity: guardian angels as friends of life
In Catholic Christianity, believers say that God assigns a guardian angel to each person as a spiritual friend for the whole life of the person on Earth. The Catechism of the Catholic Church declares in section 336 on guardian angels:

From childhood to death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession. Beside every believer there is an angel as protector and shepherd who leads him to life.
San Girolamo wrote:

The dignity of a soul is so great that everyone has a guardian angel from his birth.
St. Thomas Aquinas deepened this concept when he wrote in his book Summa Theologica that:

As long as the baby is in the mother's womb it is not completely independent, but because of a certain intimate bond, it is still part of her: just like the fruit while hanging on the wood of the cross it is part of the tree. And therefore it can be said with some probability that the angel who guards the mother guards the baby while he is in the womb. But at her birth, when she separates from her mother, a guardian angel is appointed.
Since each person is a spiritual journey throughout his life on earth, each person's guardian angel works hard to help him or her spiritually, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote in Summa Theologica:

Man, while in this state of life, is, so to speak, on a road through which he should travel to heaven. On this road, man is threatened by many dangers from both inside and outside ... And therefore while guardians are appointed for men who must pass on an unsafe road, so a guardian angel is assigned to each man until he is a wayfarer.

Protestant Christianity: angels who help people in need
In Protestant Christianity, believers look to the Bible for their supreme guide on the issue of guardian angels, and the Bible does not specify whether or not people have their own guardian angels, but the Bible is clear that guardian angels exist. Psalm 91: 11-12 declares of God:

For he will command his angels who concern you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you into their hands so as not to hit your foot against a stone.
Some Protestant Christians, such as those who belong to Orthodox denominations, believe that God gives believers personal guardian angels to accompany them and help them throughout life on Earth. For example, Orthodox Christians believe that God assigns a personal guardian angel to a person's life when he is baptized in the water.

Protestants who believe in personal guardian angels sometimes point to Matthew 18:10 in the Bible, in which Jesus Christ appears to refer to a personal guardian angel assigned to each child:

See you don't despise one of these little ones. Because I tell you that their angels in heaven always see my Father's face in heaven.
Another biblical passage that can be interpreted as meaning that a person has his own guardian angel is chapter 12 of Acts, which tells the story of an angel who helps the apostle Peter to escape from prison. After Peter escapes, he knocks on the door of the house where some of his friends are staying, but at first they don't believe it is really him and they say in verse 15:

It must be his angel.

Other Protestant Christians claim that God can choose any guardian angel among many to help people in need, depending on which angel is best suited for each mission. John Calvin, a famous theologian whose ideas were influential in the founding of the Presbyterian and Reformed denominations, said he believed that all guardian angels worked together to take care of all people:

Regardless of the fact that each believer assigned him only one angel for his defense, I dare not say positively ... This in fact, I believe it is certain, that each of us is cared for not by a single angel, but that everyone with a consensus looks for our security. After all, it is not worth looking forward to a point that does not bother us much. If someone doesn't believe it enough to know that all the orders of the heavenly guest are perpetually observing his safety, I don't see what he could gain by knowing that he has an angel as a special guardian.
Judaism: God and people who invite angels
In Judaism, some people believe in personal guardian angels, while others believe that different guardian angels can serve different people at different times. Jews claim that God can directly assign a guardian angel to accomplish a specific mission, or people can summon guardian angels on their own.

The Torah describes God assigning a particular angel to protect Moses and the Jewish people as they travel through the desert. In Exodus 32:34, God says to Moses:

Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of and my angel will precede you.
Jewish tradition says that when Jews carry out one of God's commandments, they call the guardian angels into their lives to accompany them. The influential Jewish theologian Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon) wrote in his book Guide for the Perplexed that "the term 'angel' means nothing more than a certain action" and "every apparition of an angel is part of a prophetic vision , depending on the ability of the person who perceives it ".

Midrash Jew Bereshit Rabba says that people can even become their guardian angels by faithfully fulfilling the tasks that God calls them to do:

Before the angels have accomplished their task they are called men, when they have accomplished they are angels.
Islam: Guardian angels on your shoulders
In Islam, believers say that God assigns two guardian angels to accompany each person throughout his life on earth - one to sit on each shoulder. These angels are called Kiraman Katibin (ladies and gentlemen) and pay attention to everything that people who have gone through puberty think, say and do. The one who sits on the right shoulder records their good choices while the angel who sits on the left shoulder records their wrong decisions.

Muslims sometimes say "Peace be with you" as they look over their left and right shoulders - where they believe their guardian angels reside - to recognize the presence of their guardian angels with them as they offer their daily prayers to God.

The Quran also mentions angels present both before and behind people when declaring in chapter 13, verse 11:

For each person, there are angels in succession, before and behind him: They guard him at the command of Allah.
Hinduism: every living thing has a guardian spirit
In Hinduism, believers say that every living thing - people, animals or plants - has an angelic being called a deva assigned to guard it and help it grow and thrive.

Each deva acts as divine energy, inspiring and motivating the person or other living thing that it guards to better understand the universe and become one with it.