raphael

Discovered this prayer through Paul Elie's book, "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" - where Elie noted that Flannery O'Connor received it on a Catholic Worker postcard. I particularly hear the lines about movement, joy, and crushing separation.

"O Raphael, lead us towards those we are waiting for, those who are waiting for us! Raphael, Angel of Happy Meetings, lead us by the hand towards those we are looking for! May all our movements, all their movements, be guided by your Light and transfigured by your Joy...Lonely and tired, crushed by the separations and sorrows of life, we feel the need of calling you and of pleading for the protection of your wings, so that we may not be as strangers in the province of joy."

Now looking it up online, I see it is one of the Angel Prayers - the lines appear over and over again on many websites. I wonder who wrote it.