GUARDIAN ANGEL, as pictured by Bernhard Plockhorst (Wikipedia).

A recent survey conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs showed that about 70 percent of U.S. adults believed in angels, not referring to the baseball team that plays in Anaheim.

Growing up Catholic, angels were very much a part of what we were taught. I went to public school, but attended CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine ) classes – “our” version of Sunday School, but on Saturdays – and we were told that each of us had guardian angels.

At St. Columban, the nicer nuns focused on the benefit of having a heavenly bodyguard looking after us and keeping us from tumbling down into a well, “Lassie” being a fictional character.

Of course, there were always kids showing up at school with arms in casts or black eyes. Were their guardian angels not paying attention, or perhaps there’s only so much so you can do for a kid who insists on jumping off the roof into a swimming pool?

The not-as-nice nuns focused on the negative aspects of ignoring your angels’ whispering, such as eating a hot dog on Friday, which might send you to h-e double toothpicks (since repealed!).

What really appealed to me was the concept of “patron saints.” These were former humans who were assigned responsibility for helping us out in matters great and small.

Almost every group or profession has a patron saint. St. Ambrose is the patron saint of beekeepers and St. Apollonia of dentists. St. Jude is famous as the patron saint of lost causes and police officers. They also were tasked with helping you find lost items, which was St. Anthony’s vocation.

We had a little rhyme: “Tony, Tony, look around. Something’s lost that should be found.”

You may smile, but, hey, it worked.