From: trudie.Miller@cox.net   
      
   September 29th - St. Michael the Archangel   
      
   The Church considers St. Michael, who stands between mankind and the   
   Divinity, as the mediator of her liturgical prayer. God, who made the   
   visible and invisible hierarchies with an admirable order, makes use of the   
   ministry of the celestial spirits for his glory. The angelical choirs, who   
   contemplate ceaselessly the face of the Father, know, better than men, how   
   to adore and contemplate the beauty of His infinite perfections.   
      
       The Church on earth also invites the celestial spirits to praise and   
   glorify the Lord, to worship and ceaselessly adore Him. This contemplative   
   mission of the Angels is a model for us, as St. Leo reminds us in the   
   beautiful preface of his Sacramental:   
      
   "It behooves us to render graces to Thee, who teaches us through Thy Apostle   
   that our life is directed toward Heaven; that Thou dost benevolently desire   
   that our spirits are transported to the heavenly region, the home of those   
   whom we venerate, and that especially on this day, the feast day of St.   
   Michael the Archangel, we ascend to these heights."   
      
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
   St. Michael is the chief of the Angels who fought against the Devil and the   
   bad Angels and threw them into Hell. He is the chief of the Guardian Angels   
   of individuals, and also of institutions. He himself is the Guardian Angel   
   of the institution of all institutions, which is the Holy Roman Catholic and   
   Apostolic Church. He has, therefore, a mission of tutelage. Regarding such   
   mission, we can ask what relation exists between St. Michael's first mission   
   of defeating the revolted Angels and the protection he gives men in this   
   valley of tears.   
      
   The two missions are linked. God wanted St. Michael to be His shield against   
   the Devil in the first celestial fight. He also wants St. Michael to be the   
   shield of men against the Devil, and the shield of the Holy Catholic Church   
   as well. But St. Michael does not limit himself to be a shield of   
   protection. He is also a sword to defeat and hurl the enemy into Hell. It is   
   a double mission that is correlated.   
      
   For this reason, in the Middle Ages St. Michael was considered the first   
   knight, the celestial knight: faithful, strong, and pure as a knight should   
   be. He was also victorious, because he put all his trust in God, and after   
   the birth of Our Lady, all his confidence in her.   
      
   A company of knights defend Our Lady and the Church in this painting on a   
   side altar of the Duomo, Italy   
   It is this admirable figure of St. Michael whom we should consider our   
   natural ally in the fights in which we are called to engage in defense of   
   the honor of God, Our Lady, the Holy Church and Christian Civilization. With   
   St. Michael as our model, we should defend them as a shield, and attack   
   their enemies as a sword in order to destroy the Devil's empire and   
   establish the Reign of Mary on this earth. St. Michael should be our special   
   patron.   
      
   The selection points to a particular aspect of devotion to the Angels that   
   should be stressed. The Angels are inhabitants of the celestial court who   
   continuously see God face-to-face. The apex of angelic and human happiness   
   is to contemplate God, and this is the essence of life in Heaven; it is what   
   makes Heaven the motherland of our souls. God continuously manifests new   
   aspects of Himself that suffuse the Angels with happiness.   
      
   In epochs of true faith, something of this heavenly happiness filtrates to   
   earth and is communicated to some pious souls, who, in their turn, express   
   it to the entire Church and incorporate it into her spiritual treasure for   
   us to share. Today we sorely lack this sense of heavenly happiness and,   
   therefore, we have less appetite for Heaven. Many persons only have an   
   appetite for earthly things. If they could understand for only one moment   
   the consolation that comes from the consideration of heavenly things, they   
   would understand how provisory earthly goods are, how worthless they are,   
   how other values far transcend them. If they understood these things, they   
   would be able to remove themselves from their attachment to earthly goods.   
      
   But, in our days, people are enthusiastic about money, petty politics,   
   worldly things, the trivial life and its little news. They are no longer   
   elevated souls who are enthused by great doctrinal problems and celestial   
   things.   
      
   What we are so greatly lacking today is precisely what the holy Angels can   
   obtain for us. They are inundated with a heavenly happiness, which they can   
   communicate to us. So, let us ask them to give us the desire for celestial   
   things. This is an excellent thing to ask on St. Michael the Archangel's   
   feast day, that we might model ourselves after him and become the perfect   
   knights of Our Lady on this earth.   
      
   Quote:   
   Be very mild and very gracious in the midst of your exterior occupations,   
   for everyone expects this good example from you.   
   -St. Francis de Sales   
      
   Bible Quote   
   21 And you shall call this day most solemn, and most holy. You shall do no   
   servile work therein. It shall be an everlasting ordinance in all your   
   dwellings and generations.  (Leviticus 23:21)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   The Traditional prayer to Saint Michael, the Archangel:   
      
   O Glorious Archangel St. Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, be our   
   defense in the terrible warfare which we carry on against principalities and   
   powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, spirits of evil. Come   
   to the aid of man, whom God created immortal, made in His own image and   
   likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil.   
      
   Fight this day the battle of the Lord, together with the holy angels, as   
   already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his   
   apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for   
   them any longer in Heaven.  That cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called   
   the devil or satan, who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss   
   with his angels.   
      
   Behold, this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage. Transformed   
   into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked   
   spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the name of God and of His   
   Christ, to seize upon, slay and cast into eternal perdition souls destined   
   for the crown of eternal glory.  This wicked dragon pours out, as a most   
   impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt   
   heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent   
   breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity.   
      
   These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and   
   bitterness the Church, the spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)