Happy Feast of St. Michael the Archangel!

A happy and most blessed feast of St. Michael the Archangel, the leader of the heavenly armies and the great enemy of Satan! Today is a first class feast and a day for much rejoicing. If we are not in the habit of saying the Prayer to St. Michael often, today is a perfect day to start. We ought to invoke his powerful intercession frequently in our struggle against our own sins and imperfections, and for the protection and defense of the Church. If you don’t have a copy of the prayer, you can print out the one below.

The St. Michael Prayer is included among the Leonine Prayers, that is, the prayers which Pope Leo XIII in 1884 ordered to be said after Low Mass. These prayers originally comprised three Hail Marys and the Hail Holy Queen, and in 1886, Pope Leo composed the St. Michael Prayer and added it to the original formula. Although the Leonine Prayers are not mandated in the Ordinary Form, several U.S. bishops have asked their priests to once again recite the St. Michael Prayer with their congregations at the end of Mass in response to the current crisis in the Church.

We also wish a happy patronal feast day to St. Michael Parish, our apostolate in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and to all our priests, parishioners and friends named for St. Michael!

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 thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into Hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.