• September 29th - St. Michael the Archangel

    From rich@1:396/4 to All on Sat Sep 28 08:41:36 2019
    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)