Saturday, February 18, 2012

Praying the St. Michael the Archangel Prayer at the End of Mass


PRAYER TO
SAINT MICHAEL
THE ARCHANGEL
St. Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou,
O Prince of the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan,
and all the evil spirits,
who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen..



Source: EWTN

The vision of Pope Leo XIII

Exactly 33 years to the day prior to the great Miracle of the Sun in Fatima, that is, on October 13, 1884, Pope Leo XIII had a remarkable vision. When the aged Pontiff had finished celebrating Mass in his private Vatican Chapel, attended by a few Cardinals and members of the Vatican staff, he suddenly stopped at the foot of the altar. He stood there for about 10 minutes, as if in a trance, his face ashen white. Then, going immediately from the Chapel to his office, he composed the above prayer to St. Michael, with instructions it be said after all Low Masses everywhere.
When asked what had happened, he explained that, as he was about to leave the foot of the altar, he suddenly heard voices - two voices, one kind and gentle, the other guttural and harsh. They seemed to come from near the tabernacle. As he listened, he heard the following conversation:
The guttural voice, the voice of Satan in his pride, boasted to Our Lord: "I can destroy your Church."
The gentle voice of Our Lord: "You can? Then go ahead and do so."
Satan: "To do so, I need more time and more power."
Our Lord: "How much time? How much power?
Satan: "75 to 100 years, and a greater power over those who will give themselves over to my service."
Our Lord: "You have the time, you will have the power. Do with them what you will."
In 1886, Pope Leo XIII decreed that this prayer to St. Michael be said at the end of "low" Mass (not "high", or sung Masses) throughout the universal Church, along with the Salve Regina (Hail, Holy Queen); and the practice of the congregation praying these prayers at the end of Mass continued until about 1970, with the introduction of the new rite of the Mass.

Read the rest at Michael Journal

I mentioned in my post regarding the Novena to St. Joseph that it is very clear and without doubt, that we are in a war of good vs. evil. Therefore, Catholics and Christians everywhere must fight back. One way is by praying a novena as I mentioned yesterday but also another important way is by restoring the recitation of the St. Michael the Archangel prayer at the end of Mass.

So far two bishops have already done this. The first to restore the prayer is Bishop Paprocki of the Springfield diocese. I learned of this through Father Daren Zehnle's blog post last April and which can be found here

The next bishop to restore the prayer was Bishop Daniel Jenky, of the Peoria Diocese. His excellency did so because of the recent attack on religious freedom by the Obama Administration, through the now infamous HHS Mandate. The letter to the faithful can be found here.

I asked Bishop Larry Silva of the Diocese of Honolulu do please consider restoring the St. Michael the Archangel prayer. I would suggest you respectfully and more importantly, humbly ask your bishops to do so as well.

At the end of this morning's Mass, Father E. asked that we pray together the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel.

My family and I have been including this prayer after receiving Holy Communion, at every Mass we attend, for a time now.  We will continue to do so now more than ever.

Catholics do not have to have a directive from the bishop to pray the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, at the end of Mass. You can pray this prayer as a private devotion for the protection of our country, our religious freedom and of course, for our church.

St. Michael, defend us in battle...

5 comments:

Adrienne said...

I wouldn't think that any priest would need an ok from his bishop since the prayers take place after Mass is concluded.

helen tilston said...

Thank you for this interesting post and history of the Prayer.
I do hope the Prayer to St. Michael be restored to the mass.

Helen

EC Gefroh said...

Adrienne, no, but it would be great for the bishops give that instruction to all the pastors in their dioceses.

Helen, I hope so too!

Terri said...

They say the St Michael prayer after mass on EWTN. Why not bring it back.

EC Gefroh said...

Terri, that would be great, wouldn't it.