It's the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels today and we make a special point of asking for archangelic protection. This prayer was customarily recited after Low Mass until the liturgical reforms of Vatican II and many use it today:
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the malice and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.
Powerful stuff and attributed to Leo XIII, who had seen a terrifying vision of demons being allowed out of the Pit to afflict the Church. He went on to include a version of the prayer in the Roman Ritual, for use in exorcism. It's long, so here's an excerpt.
Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church. Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly conciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating down the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations. Amen.
Of course Leo wasn't happy about the papacy's loss of temporal sovereignty and the Quirinale Palace. But he was surely prescient in discerning the spiritual roots of the gathering attack on the Church, a spiritual opposition that, these days, hardly even bothers to hide its face.
Out, demons, out.
LSP
8 comments:
The WE ARE WITH HER crowd were rebuked and loud is the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth!
Sometimes we make headway against the foul inhabitants of the pit, but not often enough.
The Prayer to St. Michael has always been one of my favorites going to back to when I was a kid. It's got a tremendous amount of power and doesn't shy away from the hard realities of evil and needing help to combat it. Always thought that it and the Prayer to St. Francis were the perfect complementary prayers. Add in the "Our Father" and the "Hail, Mary" and you've got all the bases covered spiritually.
I've always loved how St. Michael is always depicted as very manly - as it should be. We still say the prayer after Mass (FSSP)
LL, it's as though they're driven by the hysterics of hell and for sure, they lose in the end, but it's a hard time coming.
Let's see some more victories, please.
TC, I totally agree!
I think they should have kept that prayer, Adrienne. But don't get me started on liturgical abuse, sorry, "reform."
Remember how it was going to make the church really popular, and didn't? A bit like priestesses. They were going to make Anglicanism really appealing to everyone, and didn't. At least Rome doesn't have that particular curse, thank God. Kyrie...
"Until the liturgical reforms of Vatican II."
Hey, we have a choice: St. Michael the Archangel or liturgical dance? Which one do you want?
But Infidel, liturgical dance is so very awesome.
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