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The Return of the Prayer to St. Michael
Crisis Magazinei ^ | December 9, 2014 | JOE BISSONNETTE

Posted on 12/09/2014 2:09:19 PM PST by NYer

Eugene Delacroix St. Michael defeats the Devil 854-61

Modern philosophy is full of all sorts of absurd theories about the illusory nature of existence and the unreliability of everything we know to be true. But the boots on the ground, living, breathing, day to day philosophy of even the most angst-ridden German nihilist or the most wild-eyed French existentialist has to be common sense realism. Even German and French philosophers must eat, sleep and conduct themselves in civil society.

There’s great consolation in the reliability of the law of gravity and the fact that it means something specific to me or anyone else when you say dog, cat, house, person, good, true and beautiful. But the last three of those words; good, true and beautiful, and maybe even person, do enjoin some philosophical reflection. They are the basis for making sense of right and wrong, obligation, prohibition and so on. Philosophy isn’t just a waste of time.

Catholicism is deeply philosophical and also deeply mystical and of late the mysticism of the Catholic world view has been confronting me with great force, and confronting the minimalist common sense realism I had more or less taken for granted.

Our parish and a number of Catholic churches I’ve been to recently have begun saying the St. Michael prayer after Mass. It is a breathtaking departure from the modern psychological deconstruction through which I have made sense of my own mental states and those of others. Pride, envy, sloth, greed, lust, gluttony and wrath are not merely maladjustments, but rather they are the snares of a spiritual being who seeks the ruin of souls. They are our weaknesses within our wounded souls, but they are also passions from outside of us, which act upon us, against which we must not be passive, or we will be swept away.

The idea that there is a spirit of pride, envy, sloth or any of the other deadly sins which can emanate from people, entertainments or places—or from the devil—is an enchanted, mystical, ancient Catholic view. Since the 1200’s the Tridentine Mass invoked St. Michael in the Confiteor as a protection against evil. Ours is a faith shot through with struggles between powers and principalities, angels and demons.

The resurgence in the St. Michael Prayer reclaims much of the domain seized by Freud, Jung, Adler and their redactors in outlining the landscape of the soul. And it rings true. We are not merely struggling to harness internal engines of the soul like the desires for sex, meaning and power. We are not merely hot-house orchids, isolated, hermetically sealed, gazing upon the tempests which rage within our spiritual navels. We are also the objects of a cosmic struggle between the forces of God and the Devil.

Scott Hahn explained the sign of the beast, 666, the mark of the devil referred to in Revelations, as the spiteful declaration of spiritual war by Satan. It was rooted in Satan’s offended pride and envy. According to St Thomas Aquinas, angels have perfect knowledge of that which they know, and at the instant of creation, saw all that would unfold throughout history, including the fall of man and the incarnation of God in the Person of Jesus Christ. According to Hahn, that God would become a lowly man was such an affront to the vastly superior angels that Satan rebelled in disgust, and 6, the day upon which man was created, was repeated as a cuss three times, as a mock of the Trinity and a declaration of rebellion. The fall of the angels was directly linked to their envy of man because God took on lowly humanity in the Person of Jesus Christ. So from the beginning, the principle objective of the fallen angels has been the seduction and ruin of human souls. According to Catholic theology we are hunted by the devil and his minions but also protected by hosts of angels, including angels specifically assigned to the protection of each one of us.

Now there is good reason to have pause. Most sane Catholics stiffen up at some point in the discussion of devil sand angels. We live in an age of progress and practical solutions and the idea of an intractable struggle between invisible forces of good and evil seems pre-modern and nutty. And this is so among good Catholics who have closely adhered to the Church. In fact Vatican II officially suppressed the then widespread practice of praying the St. Michael prayer after Mass in the Instructio Prima. And the denuding of the churches of frescoes, statuary and all but the most abstract stained glass windows signaled a strong de-emphasis on the theology of powers and principalities. This has been the moment in the Church in which we have grown up. If one were to propose a spectrum extending from dismissal of the devil as a pre-scientific mythological representation of the psychologically and physically unexplained all the way over to a constant awareness of external forces both attacking and defending us, most of us would locate far closer to the former.

But in the past few years things have changed both among Church hierarchy and in the pews. In 1994 Pope John Paul II urged Catholics to recite the prayer again. And it has become increasingly evident to a growing number that abortion, pornography, same-sex “marriage” and no-fault divorce are not just isolated evils but part of a broad, concerted effort. Anthropologists accept it as axiomatic that we are religious by nature, always seeking to make sense of the meaning and purpose of our lives and creation. As these things have become more and more prevalent in our culture, their soul-transforming effects have given them a somewhat symbolic quality. It looks more and more like these evils are sacraments of darkness, rites aggressively promoted in a massive spiritual struggle for souls. Witness revelations of abortionist Kermit Gosnell’s practice of keep hundreds of tiny feet from the babies he killed in plastic bags in his freezer. More and more, ordinary Catholics think in terms of the ancient Catholic understanding of a cosmic struggle between good and evil, God and the devil.

At the April convocation of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy in Barry’s Bay, Thomas Cardinal Collins gave the keynote address. He began with Chesterton’s observation that we love The Iliad because life is a struggle, we love The Odyssey because life is a journey, we love the Book of Job because so much of what befalls us is incomprehensible. To this he added a fourth; we love the Book of Revelations because we want to know how it all ends. He then said that we do know how it all ends—and these were the truest words he spoke that day.

If all the madness we face were merely phantasms in our tortured souls we could have no confidence in the triumph of God. From all the times we have made earnest resolutions and then fallen again, each of us knows that we can’t trust ourselves and so we know that we could not be certain that we would choose good over evil in the end if it were only up to us. The struggle between good and evil would be too much to bear if it were left up to us. We could have no confidence in how it all ends. But mercifully it is not only up to us.

After the cardinal had spoken, after the final blessing at the end of the convocation mass at St Hedwig’s church, several hundred voices and the cardinal recited the prayer to St. Michael. He then said that he had already printed up thousands of copies of the prayer and he planned to promulgate it in the archdiocese of Toronto as soon as opportunity allowed. As the storm gathers and the division between good and evil becomes more stark, the unfolding of history is providing that opportunity.

 

Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel

St. Michael the archangel defend us in battle
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him we humbly pray, and do though o prince of the heavenly host
By the power of God cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl the world
seeking the ruin of souls.



TOPICS: Catholic; History; Prayer; Worship
KEYWORDS:
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To: annalex

shove off -— TROLL.


141 posted on 12/15/2014 8:41:18 PM PST by BlueDragon (I could see sound,love,and the soundsetme Free,but youwerenot listening,so could not see)
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To: BlueDragon

I was trying to be nice to you and offered to accommodate you. If you don’t appreciate it, I am free from sticking to the offer I made.


142 posted on 12/15/2014 8:52:51 PM PST by annalex (fear them not)
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To: annalex
Speaking about angels, this is a nice bedtime prayer courtesy of our elder brothers, and no, you are not a troll, but a child of God.

In the name of Adonai the God of Israel:
May the angel Michael be at my right,
and the angel Gabriel be at my left;
and in front of me the angel Uriel,
and behind me the angel Raphael...
and above my head the Sh'khinah (Divine Presence).

Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

143 posted on 12/15/2014 8:58:17 PM PST by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began.)
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To: annalex
More game playing huh?

Well it certainly didn't come across that way to me. Instead, it appeared to my eyes as just so much more passive-aggressive pomposity, on your own part.

You just don't get it.

I'm not interested in much anything you have to say.

Keep it to yourself -- or at least do not address it to me regardless if others include myself in pings to their own comments.

On this thread, there were only three included (when I was included).

I will let you know when I wish to hear from you (which is truly never) making exception for those times and places I myself venture comment.

But for comments made by others here --- to yourself or anyone else --- leave me out of your usual "troll action" expressions of your own bigotry and pride.

It is those elements, when mixed with all else -- which make productive conversation with yourself (and more than a few others around here) nearly impossible -- and undesirable, for I care not for the abuse.

Go abuse yourself maybe?

144 posted on 12/15/2014 9:05:07 PM PST by BlueDragon (I could see sound,love,and the soundsetme Free,but youwerenot listening,so could not see)
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To: BlueDragon

Thank you so very much, dear brother in Christ, for your beautiful and engaging essay!


145 posted on 12/15/2014 10:10:19 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: af_vet_1981

That is a beautiful prayer. Thank you.


146 posted on 12/16/2014 7:43:47 AM PST by annalex (fear them not)
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To: BlueDragon

I’ll stick to my ping policy, in general, regardless of personalities and temperaments.


147 posted on 12/16/2014 7:44:26 AM PST by annalex (fear them not)
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To: annalex
And another jewel upon waking,

I offer thanks to You,
living and eternal King,
for You have mercifully restored my soul within me;
Your faithfulness is great.


It sounds best in song.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
148 posted on 12/16/2014 7:51:09 AM PST by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began.)
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To: annalex

Again, shove off, troll.

I'm not in the least interested in hearing of your own self-justifications.

If I do not address you, or make some open comment to which you then venture reply, then keep me out of it.

--- do not include me in any response which you may make towards others, and any "ping list".

149 posted on 12/16/2014 8:12:21 AM PST by BlueDragon (I could see sound,love,and the soundsetme Free,but youwerenot listening,so could not see)
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To: BlueDragon

I cannot promise you that, and frankly, have no desire to do you favors.


150 posted on 12/16/2014 7:36:12 PM PST by annalex (fear them not)
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