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[Catholic Caucus] Why is St. Michael portrayed stabbing Satan in the mouth? Reflection by Fr. Peter Miller OSBDedication of the Basilica of St. Michael the ArchangelSeptember 29, 2023Fr. Peter Miller, OSBWhitestone MonasteryToday, the spiritual feast of Holy Mother Church honors St. Michael the Archangel, one of the four principal angels according to Holy Scripture and Christian tradition. Michael’s name appears four times in Sacred Scripture: Daniel 10:13; Daniel 12:1; in the Epistle of Jude; Revelation 12:7. In the Book of Daniel, Michael appears as an apocalyptic warrior who defends the Israelites against the Prince of Persia. The Book of Revelation...

Saint Michael the Archangel: "Defend us in battle" and "be our protection" against wickedness It’s Veterans Day in America, yet there are progressively fewer to venerate. Most of the World War II generation is gone and even the older Vietnam vets are reaching average life expectancy. Relatively few Americans have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, and most of them never saw battle. Yet even as explaining combat to a civilian is like describing the sky to somebody blind from birth, we “brave few,” as Shakespeare famously put it in Henry V, feel compelled to try anyway. Ask a veteran what...

It has been the Feast of Saint Michael and all Angels today, with all that we associate with that, in Christendom, both Western and Eastern. One cannot be Christian and deny that angels exist: the most literal will find several actually named in the Bible (Old Testament and New), and their messages received, and their presences acknowledged, page after page. Their choirs ascend, in greater and greater proximity to God in the highest: Angels, Archangels, Principalities; Powers, Virtues, Dominations; Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim. There was a post on this topic one year ago. I tried to supply a suitable affront to...

His Excellency the Most Reverend Thomas John Paprocki, Bishop of Springfield in Illinois, has authorized the public recitation of the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel - originally composed by the Holy Father Pope Leo XIII in 1886 - following the dismissal at the end of Mass and before the recession. He announced this authorization to the priests of the Diocese at a dinner preceding the Chrism Mass Tuesday evening and to the people of the Diocese at the conclusion of the Chrism Mass. Prayer cards with the text of the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel were distributed after every Mass with the newly...

It is hard to know whether Monday was a very bad day or a very good day for Lance Cpl. Andrew Koenig. On the one hand, he was shot in the head. On the other, the bullet bounced off him. In one of those rare battlefield miracles, an insurgent sniper hit Lance Cpl. Koenig dead on in the front of his helmet, and he walked away from it with a smile on his face.... The only injury: A small, numb red welt on his forehead, just above his right eye.... Gunnery Sgt. Shelton, a 36-year-old veteran from Nashville, said he...

Lives of the Saints, May 8, The Apparition of St. Michael the Archangel   APPARITION of SAINT MICHAEL the ARCHANGELMonte Gargano, Italy(492) It is evident from Holy Scripture that God is pleased to make frequent use of the ministry of the heavenly spirits in the dispensations of His providence in this world. The Angels are all pure spirits; by a property of their nature they are immortal, as is every spirit. They have the power of moving or conveying themselves at will from place to place, and such is their activity that it is not easy for us to...

Hutton Gibson has been making a three-hour drive each week for the past year from his home in Summersville, W.Va., to rural Westmoreland County, a round trip of more than 300 miles, just to attend Sunday Mass. Now, the 87-year-old Gibson plans to have his own church in Mt. Pleasant Township. The church is St. Michael the Archangel Chapel, now located in a ranch-style brick home along Route 982 South between the villages of Lycippus and Weltytown. Gibson is no ordinary parishioner. Gibson is the father of actor-director Mel Gibson and a follower of an ultraconservative branch of Catholicism that...