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
