From: rich <
richarra@gmail.com>
September 29th - St. Michael the Archangel
The Church considers St. Michael, who stands between mankind and the
Divinity, as the mediator of her liturgical prayer. God, who made the
visible and invisible hierarchies with an admirable order, makes use
of the ministry of the celestial spirits for his glory. The angelical
choirs, who contemplate ceaselessly the face of the Father, know,
better than men, how to adore and contemplate the beauty of His
infinite perfections.
The Church on earth also invites the celestial spirits to praise and
glorify the Lord, to worship and ceaselessly adore Him. This
contemplative mission of the Angels is a model for us, as St. Leo
reminds us in the beautiful preface of his Sacramental:
=E2=80=9CIt behooves us to render graces to Thee, who teaches us through Th=
y
Apostle that our life is directed toward Heaven; that Thou dost
benevolently desire that our spirits are transported to the heavenly
region, the home of those whom we venerate, and that especially on
this day, the feast day of St. Michael the Archangel, we ascend to
these heights."
Comments of Prof. Plinio:
St. Michael is the chief of the Angels who fought against the Devil
and the bad Angels and threw them into Hell. He is the chief of the
Guardian Angels of individuals, and also of institutions. He himself
is the Guardian Angel of the institution of all institutions, which is
the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church. He has, therefore, a
mission of tutelage. Regarding such mission, we can ask what relation
exists between St. Michael's first mission of defeating the revolte=
d
Angels and the protection he gives men in this valley of tears.
The two missions are linked. God wanted St. Michael to be His shield
against the Devil in the first celestial fight. He also wants St.
Michael to be the shield of men against the Devil, and the shield of
the Holy Catholic Church as well. But St. Michael does not limit
himself to be a shield of protection. He is also a sword to defeat and
hurl the enemy into Hell. It is a double mission that is correlated.
For this reason, in the Middle Ages St. Michael was considered the
first knight, the celestial knight: faithful, strong, and pure as a
knight should be. He was also victorious, because he put all his trust
in God, and after the birth of Our Lady, all his confidence in her.
It is this admirable figure of St. Michael whom we should consider our
natural ally in the fights in which we are called to engage in defense
of the honor of God, Our Lady, the Holy Church and Christian
Civilization. With St. Michael as our model, we should defend them as
a shield, and attack their enemies as a sword in order to destroy the
Devil's empire and establish the Reign of Mary on this earth. St.
Michael should be our special patron.
The selection points to a particular aspect of devotion to the Angels
that should be stressed. The Angels are inhabitants of the celestial
court who continuously see God face-to-face. The apex of angelic and
human happiness is to contemplate God, and this is the essence of life
in Heaven; it is what makes Heaven the motherland of our souls. God continuously manifests new aspects of Himself that suffuse the Angels
with happiness.
In epochs of true faith, something of this heavenly happiness
filtrates to earth and is communicated to some pious souls, who, in
their turn, express it to the entire Church and incorporate it into
her spiritual treasure for us to share. Today we sorely lack this
sense of heavenly happiness and, therefore, we have less appetite for
Heaven. Many persons only have an appetite for earthly things. If they
could understand for only one moment the consolation that comes from
the consideration of heavenly things, they would understand how
provisory earthly goods are, how worthless they are, how other values
far transcend them. If they understood these things, they would be
able to remove themselves from their attachment to earthly goods.
But, in our days, people are enthusiastic about money, petty politics,
worldly things, the trivial life and its little news. They are no
longer elevated souls who are enthused by great doctrinal problems and celestial things.
What we are so greatly lacking today is precisely what the holy Angels
can obtain for us. They are inundated with a heavenly happiness, which
they can communicate to us. So, let us ask them to give us the desire
for celestial things. This is an excellent thing to ask on St. Michael
the Archangel's feast day, that we might model ourselves after him =
and
become the perfect knights of Our Lady on this earth.
See
https://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j093sdMichael_9-29.htm
<><><><>
A prayer to Saint Michael, for aid against the spiritual enemies of God:
Glorious St. Michael, Prince of the heavenly hosts, who standest always
ready to give assistance to the people of God; who didst fight with the
dragon, the old serpent, and didst cast him out of heaven, and now
valiantly defendest the Church of God that the gates of hell may never
prevail against her, I earnestly entreat thee to assist me also, in the
painful and dangerous conflict which I have to sustain against the same formidable foe.
Be with me, O mighty Prince! that I may courageously fight and
wholly vanquish that proud spirit, whom thou hast by the Divine Power, so gloriously overthrown, and whom our powerful King, Jesus Christ, has, in
our nature, so completely overcome; to the end that having triumphed over
the enemy of my salvation, I may with thee and the holy angels, praise the clemency of God who, having refused mercy to the rebellious angels after
their fall, has granted repentance and forgiveness to fallen man. Amen.
--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
* Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)