A Story of St. Michael — 7

Forty solders of Sebaste had refused to sacrifice to idols. The governor ordered them exposed overnight on an icy pond. There they prayed and asked that as they were forty in the arena, they would be forty as well in receiving the palm of martyrdom. But one of them lost courage and threw himself into the hot bath that had been prepared next to them to try these generous confessors of the Faith. Alas! He died there immediately. The others remained more determined than ever to die for Jesus Christ. They exhorted one another when, at the third hour of the night, a great light appeared on the lake and angels descended from Heaven with crowns to place upon the heads of these heroic martyrs. One of the guards was divinely inspired, the story tells us, took the place of he who had failed.

From the testimony of Saint Ephrem, deacon of church of Edessa, it was Saint Michael who came to console the forty martyrs and soften the rigor of their torments.

Prayer :

O Saint Michael, Consoling Angel of afflicted souls, give us your strength and your efficacious protection in our trials. Teach us to suffer with resignation and through love of God. Bring down on us the graces and blessings of Heaven, so that we may bear in a Christ-like way the pains and sorrows of life and that we may deserve the reward promised by Jesus Christ to those who suffer with Him and for Him. Amen.

St. Michael — Angel of Consolation

Suffering is the great law of human life. Pain is attached to us like a shadow follows our steps. We can flee: but it inexorably accompanies us. Many ways lead it to us, and it reaches us in our whole being: our spirit is tormented by anxieties, by doubts, and by scruples; our heart is torn by separations, by being forgotten, by ingratitude, by bereavement; our soul is seized even in its hidden places; our body is overwhelmed by work and privations, it is tortured, broken-down, and devoured by disease.

God, it seems, wants us to feel all the spines of the crown of thorns, to make us carry all the weight of the cross. As day succeeds day, pain succeeds pain. Ah! He is to be pitied – he who suffers and has not the Faith!

For us Christians, in the midst of so many sadnesses, anxieties, and pains, where will come the blessed ray that illuminates the shadows of poverty and the darkness of suffering? Where will we draw the strength that sustains our weakness, raises our heart; the hope that gives courage and comfort by opening up the perspectives of eternity?

The Redeemer of the world wanted to suffer. He was like us in everything, except sin. Heaven and earth were stupefied to see Him exhausted, crushed. And Jesus, overwhelmed in his soul and body, asked His Father to take away from Him the cup of bitterness. The response of God was to send His angel. An angel appeared to Him, says the Evangelist, and comforted Him.

The commentators recognize here the Archangel Michael. It was suitable, they say, for the Prince of Angels to render this service to the Man-God. What they say here is piously explained by Saint Bonaventure: “We begged the Divine Majesty to remove this chalice from you. And the Eternal Father has answered: Jesus, my Son, knows that if he want the salvation of souls, he must die for them. Lord, what do you choose then?

– I wish the salvation of souls. I prefer to die.

– Courage then. The works of the Most High must be magnificent and His courage invincible. The pains will pass quickly, and their rigors will succeed the immortal glory. Your Father tells you by my mouth.”

 Since this great scene, the Archangel Saint Michael has received a special gift, the gift of consoling. It is necessary to call to him in the troubled hours of life. He will descend from Heaven, the helping angel, as he came down bringing to Jesus Christ defiant strength, courage, and resignation. He will say to us as to the Savior that it is good for us to suffer, because suffering expiates, sanctifies, and acquires merits. Then, with his powerful hand, he will open the curtain of the world and of time, and will show us this country to which we slowly moving, a home where are no tears, no moans, no death, where there is a day without shadow, a sun without decline, a bliss unparalleled.

If this vision does not heal us, at least it will support us, and we will wait with a hope in our hearts, if not a smile on our lips, for the realization of the Divine promises.

Practice: In the pains of life, let us lift our eyes to Heaven and let us call to our helper, the Angel of celestial consolation.

A Story of St. Michael — 6

In the 8th century, a strange animal spread terror in Ireland. The Bishop ordered a fast of three days and then summoned his people to attack the monster and put it to death. They discovered the beast at the summit of a mountain and decided to shout loudly to excite it. As it remained immobile, they approached it. To their great astonishment, they found that it had been killed!

Near the dragon they found a small shield and a sword. Where did these weapons come from, which seemed rather like children's toys than soldier's weapons? That night, Saint Michael appeared to the Bishop: “I am the Archangel Michael,” he said, “always present before the throne of God where I love to defend and to protect you. It is me who has destroyed this monster that you could not defeat. The arms that you found are mine. I have left them with you in remembrance of what I have done for you. But I wish these weapons to be brought to the Mount dedicated to me beyond the seas.”

Through the centuries, one could see in the treasury of the Abbey of Mount Saint Michael this sword and shield.

Saint Michael -- if we pray to him, he will fight the dragon and prevent it from injuring us.

Prayer :

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our help against the malice and the snares of the devil. God, rebuke him, we humbly pray. And you, Prince of the Heavenly Hosts, by the Divine power with which you are vested, cast into hell Satan and all the other evil spirits who wander in the world, seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

St. Michael — Angel of Strength

The Christian life can be defined as directing the soul to God, to Eternity. But directing means walking forward; and through effort, progress. But the effort and the progress, suppose struggle, violence, and fighting. The life of men on the earth is assuredly a fight. Energy is the first character of the Christian. All true Christians must be strong and generous.

But, in the times in which we live, souls are afflicted with a terrible weakness: weakness in the young man who soon becomes the victim and slave of his passions; weakness in the mature man who is sensitive to human respect and incapable of asserting his convictions; weakness in the family where duty, respect, obedience, and love are unknown. Indifference ices the heart, incredulity invades the spirit, the current of passion drives the will; because souls do not know how to resist this torrent of demoralization, scepticism, and impiety which flows in abundance and against which society is not protected.

Saint Michael will give us the strength and bravery. According to interpreters, the strong angel seen by Saint John in the Apocalypse is Saint Michael. He has been a glorious champion for the rights of God against Lucifer; far from being dazzled by the luminous prestige of the superb angel, far from being won over by the great number of rebellious spirits, he proclaimed in the face of heaven his fidelity and submission; he found in his heart this cry, the true and final word of the valiant angels: who is like God?

For us, temptation is everywhere. It is in prestige of the sonorous words sown around us; in these doctrines of nothingness and voluptuousness everywhere prone to be exclaimed; in the doubts and negations of the order of life; in the permanent seduction of the great number of those who refuse to believe and adore; in the pride and in the frenzied desire to enjoy or pervert so many wills.

Let us go to Saint Michael and look to him.

He was strong because he believed. The Faith is a source of strength. It is written in the Holy Bible as a triumphant affirmation, a promise full of hope: Faith brings victory.

He was strong, because he dwells in humility. He humbled himself before the glimpse of Christ, and God gave him His grace. Lucifer, on the contrary, refused to bend his knee; but that was the cause of his loss. God resisted him, as He always resists the proud. The humble man is strong: he has the help that God always gives to the humble.

We have the example of Saint Michael; we also have his protection, and his intercession which is so close to God. Let us rise for the glorious fight for the Faith and for virtue. With the help of Saint Michael, we will vanquish, and we will conquer and receive the glorious destiny which is the recompense of the brave. “Be strong in the battle, fight against the ancient serpent, and you will come into possession of the eternal kingdom.”

Practice: To have strength, let us draw from its source: prayer and the Sacraments.

A Story of St. Michael — 5

Saint Albert, having built on Mount Tomb the sanctuary demanded by the Archangel, sent two canons to seek relics at Mount Gargono in Italy. They brought back a fragment of the veil that Saint Michael had placed on the altar of the crypt, and a piece of the marble on which he had left an imprint of his foot.

At the passage of these precious gifts, the crowds were roused and their confidence in Saint Michael obtained for many of the sick healing of their infirmities. Among other marvels, a dozen blindmen recovered their sight. A miracle bursting forth close to the mountain. A poor woman of the village Asteriac was following the procession, but she moaned as she could see nothing. But all of a sudden, her eyes were opened; Surprised to see so suddenly, and delighted by all that struck her eyes, she exclaimed: “Qu’il fait beau voir!”  that is “It is beautiful to see!”

According to tradition, this miracle and this cry have given the village the name Beauvoir by which it is know even to this day.

It is beautiful to see! This is the cry of the believer who is illuminated by the angel of light.

Prayer :

Glorious Archangel, you who are the Prince of Light, defend our faith against the plots of the spirit of darkness, illuminate us always, so that, walking by the light of the Divine flame, we will never lose sight of the Master that we must serve, the way that we have to follow, and the good that we are obliged to practice. Thus, we have hope that we may merit to be lead by you into the heavenly light. Amen.

St. Michael — Angel of Light

The men of our times are absorbed in the preoccupations of life, carried away by the current of present things, not seeing anything beyond pleasures, riches, honours, earthly aspirations. Their life is assuredly a life without light; it is the plaything of false flickers, of false mirages, of deceiving illusions.

Our scientists have made marvelous discoveries, but not in the low places or the high have they found God. Nowhere have they discerned His presence or His action. They lack the ray that descends from above and makes creation appear to them in its true glory: it becomes the mirror of things Divine, a book full of God.

Men, hungry for pleasure, bend their knees before creatures, asking them for happiness. But there they meet devouring anxieties and profound bitterness. They lack the light of Christ which allows them to comprehend the human heart, this heart which is capable of infinite aspirations and which only God can satisfy.

If a heart thirsts for happiness, the spirit thirsts for light. The Truth is his need, his life. Without it, he suffers and languishes, as all of nature suffers and languishes when the sun disappears below the horizon. But how many men do not discern the Truth, and how many ask where it is? Like a blindman, they ask: “What is the sun and what benefit does it carry to the world” ! They lack the light of the Truth which delivers and saves, which dispels all clouds and pierces all darkness.

To those who can no longer distinguish the Truth, we add those who do not know anymore what is good and what is evil. Are we not at a time where all Truth is diminished? The world makes its own gospel and moral code, where every vice finds a pretext or an excuse. The world lacks the Divine light which shows the good and helps one love it, it shows the bad and makes one hate it.

In the midst of this darkness, which grows stronger every day, wrapping society and carrying gloom into souls, Saint Michael shines before Christian eyes, the pure light of the Faith: he is the angel of light, the angel of Faith. Saint John speaks of him when he says, “I have seen the angel whose face shone like the sun.” God clothed him with the light of which the fallen angel had, until then, been the brilliant focus; and powerfully reflecting the Divine Light, he is charged with projecting it by a marvellous shining throughout the entirety of creation.

The rebellious angel pursues his goal relentlessly; to throw spirits into doubt, into incredulity; he is the angel of deceit, the angel of darkness. His eternal conqueror foils his black plots by spreading the light everywhere: he illuminates souls, dispels their uncertainty, and makes them blossom in supernatural clarity. In heaven, at the cry of saint Michael, the light emerges dazzling, and the angels see God in the midst of His unalterable glory; they believe and they adore.

Practice: Let us guard our Faith and let us avoid anything that could obscure the  Divine sun in our souls.

A Story of St. Michael - 4

In 590, the plague was desolating the city of Rome in a most terrible way. Pope Saint Gregory called the people into a procession. Inspired by Heaven, he took in his hands, the image of the Mother of God, and barefoot, shoulders covered with penitential sackcloth, he traveled throughout the city. He arrived at the pier of the Adrian sea, then he heard in the air marvelous voices; it was the angels chanting the Regina Caeli. The Pontiff raised his voice to join in supplication: “Pray to God for us.” At that instant, an angel appeared on the top of the mausoleum: he held in his hand a naked sword and placed it back in its sheath; God had mercy and it was through the intercession of Mary that Michael, the minister of Divine Justice, replaced the sword of vengence.

Prayer :

August Queen of Heaven, Sovereign Mistress of the Angels, you who from the beginning have received from God the power and the mission to crush the head of Satan, we humbly ask of you, send the holy legions, so that, under your orders and through your strength, they may pursue the demons and battle them everywhere. Saint Michael, defend us. Amen.

St. Michael – Knight of Our Lady

At the name of Jesus, every knee bends. One could say that at the name of Mary, all heads incline. At this name, hearts are gently moved. It is the name of a queen and a mother. Men give her the sweet name of mother. The angels could also give it to her. It is for them as for men, the source of grace and supernatural glory in the Heart of Jesus. One could say that for them as for us, Mary is the Mother of Divine Grace.

Who can express the respect of the angels for their queen, their love for Mary?

Saint Michael, without any doubt, is distinguished in the expression of this respect and of this love. We could say that he is glorified in being the Knight of Mary.

From the first, he has recognized it. He has understood that due to her incomparable dignity as the Mother of the Word Made Flesh, she would become the Queen of all creatures, his queen therefore, and as a loyal knight, he bows before her. It was for her as for the Word Incarnate that he battled against Lucifer.

If he was not her guardian angel on earth, a place that seems to have been reserved for the Archangel Gabriel, he approaches it very closely. Was he not a happy witness to the divine conception of her Son, and did he not become then the vigilant guardian of the blessed fruit of her chaste womb? At the Nativity, he hurried to adore his master in the arms of His mother and placed all his zeal at the service of the Holy Family. It is he who came to say to Joseph: “Take the child and His mother and leave”, and it is thanks to him that the Dragon could not attempt anything against the Woman and her Son.

The Holy Virgin does not officially appear in the presence of an angel but one time: that is, the day of the Annunciation. To find her in the company of the angels, we need to go to her final days on earth and to her glorious Assumption.

An angel, says one pious legend, came to announce to Mary her blessed deliverance. She asked him his name. “I am called the Great, the Marvelous, the Admirable,” he responded. This name suits Saint Michael.

At the hour of her death, the august Virgin laid upon her bed. Jesus assisted, surround by a train of angels. At the invitation of Jesus Christ, the soul of Mary left her body, Saint Michael received it and carried it to Heaven. “The Lord Jesus appeared,” said Gregory of Tours, “and welcomed the soul of His mother which He then confided to the Archangel Michael.”

Soon, according to Tradition, the soul of Mary regained possession of her body, and the Virgin gloriously left her tomb, to be seated on the throne which He had prepared in the heights of Heaven: she was transported there by angels.

Every queen wears at the front of her crown, a symbol of her sovereignty. The queen of Heaven received a royal tiara. Some engravings showing to us the glorious coronation of Mary, Christ placing the crown on the head of His mother, with the help of His angel.

In devotion to the Blessed Virgin, Saint Michael is our model. He teaches us to honour her, to serve her, and to love her. Let us ask of him the same sentiments for this august Queen.

Practice: Let us pray to the Holy Virgin with confidence, one never invokes her in vain.

A Story of St. Michael - 3

In York, in England, during the time of the Protestant persecution, the police came down to make a search of a convent. The agents went first to the chapel with the purpose of profaning the Sacred Species. Guessing their sacrilegious aim, the superior ran there and seizing the ciborium concealed it under her cloak. Suddenly, a thought of hope shone in her soul. She seized a statue of Saint Michael and placed it at the entrance of the Oratory. “Mighty God,” she cried, “save yourself, we cannot save you!”  The mob rushed toward them, but in the presence of the statue of the Archangel, they remained as ones forbidden and were unable to advance. The cries stopped, the most audacious recoiled, and this satanic horde was driven back into the street. In an instant, the house was empty and the Sisters were saved.

Saint Michael showed himself the Defender of the Eucharist and the Protector of the Spouses of Christ.

Prayer :

O Saint Michael, who adores the hidden God and presents at the sublime altar the Holy Offering: awaken our faith, fortify our hope, arouse our love, so that with you and like you, we may adore Him who immolates Himself for us and that we may participate more efficaciously in the Holy Mysteries, so that they may apply to us more fully the merits of the Passion of Jesus Christ. Amen.

ST. MICHAEL – ANGEL OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST

Jesus Christ left us words that remain a consolation and strength to his disciples “I am with you even until the consummation of the world.” He resides among us; His house is the tabernacle. It is there that He is delighted to live among the children of men. It is there that we go to visit Him and pray to Him.

Why should the guardian angel of the mortal life of our Savior not now be the guardian angel of his Eucharist life? Without a doubt, he is standing at the entrance of the sanctuary with a flaming sword in hand like the cherubim stand at the entrance to Paradise.

When the Faithful approach to receive Communion: the Archangel smiles at the soul which presents itself to its God animated by faith, purity, and love. Is it not promised that he who would render Him worship of the nine greetings, would have, on his way to the Holy Table, a train of nine angels chosen from the nine choirs?

When the priest ascends to the altar, the Archangel is witness to the great action that is accomplished there. The Church tells us that he stands to the right of the altar. When, at the words of the priest, the Divine Victim descends upon the altar, the Churches recites by her minister profoundly bowing, this significant invocation: “Almighty God, command that these mysterious offerings be carried by the hands of your holy angel to your altar on high.”

This marvellous mission has been given to Saint Michael by unequivocal proof. Pope Saint Leo, in offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass,  saw one day, at the moment of this invocation, Saint Michael descending to the altar, taking the Holy Host and carrying it to Heaven, he laid it upon the celestial altar where Jesus is constantly in immolation before His Father, and after a few moments, returning it to the altar and saying to him: “This that I have come to make manifest before your eyes, I have done every day so many times; Jesus, my Master, immolates Himself by the sword of the word that puts Him into the hands of his ministers.”

When we assist at the Holy Mass, let us consider the great role of Saint Michael and let us ask him to carry before the throne of God, at the same time as the holy Oblation, our wishes and prayers.  

Practice: Let us impress upon ourselves a holy respect when we enter into the church and let us assist at the Holy Mass with a steadfast devotion.