St. Michael, Defend Us

Before the 1960s, the Church offered the prayer to St. Michael following every Mass. Saint Michael is guardian/protector of the Church. His was the first case in the history of the universe of confronting Satan.

Think about that for a moment.  Pause and consider. There was no one, no being, no creature, whom Michael could model himself after in opposing Satan. There had been no evil, no rebellion, up to that point which required opposing. So Michael was the very first. He "blazed the trail," so to speak, and became a model. He had been in the lower choirs of angels and is now Prince of the heavenly host.

Satan — at that point Lucifer — was far exceeding Michael in rank and glory. But when he refused to serve God, this angelic being from the lower ranks rose up and charged him with the great sin of comparing himself to God. His name is what he charged Lucifer with — his great pride: Who is like God? Micha-El?

It was the charge, the rhetorical question challenging the great pride of lucifer, a pride that transformed him from the angel of light to the angel of darkness. The great conflict that erupted between Michael, a virtual sergeant in the heavenly ranks, and the great general Lucifer is recounted in St. John's Apocalypse. "Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven" (Apoc. 12:7–8).

Notice the reference to "his angels," meaning St. Michael. They came under his command at that point, thus being given charge of all the heavenly host. A long-held pious tradition even holds that Michael was the guardian angel of Our Blessed Lord Himself. We know that angels ministered to Our Lord. We know too that Our Lord's entire mission was to free mankind from the snare of Satan, so there is nothing in this pious tradition that would go against the Faith. And it is strengthened when one considers that since the foe of Our Lord directly was Satan that Michael would be granted the great honor — having defeated him once before — to be the same one to witness his everlasting defeat and stand at the side of the God-Man as this was accomplished.

It was, in fact, the very pre-announcement of this God-Man that had provoked Lucifer to rebellion, thereby raising St. Michael to the heights he has been raised in opposing him. One biblical commentary says of Our Lord having a guardian angel: "The Creator of all, who is never in need of the help of his creatures, is ready to accept, as man, consolation and help from those who can give it."

We here at the St. Michael's Media apostolate desire to inspire greater devotion to St. Michael, and so we are introducing a one-time offer which will do this very thing while also helping us in continuing our work.

A great friend of the apostolate, Bernadette Shonka, has handcrafted 100 extremely beautiful St. Michael chaplets for us to give away to the first 100 people who donate $100 specifically for this cause. The St. Michael chaplet was first introduced into Catholic life in 1851 by Pope Pius IX after a Portuguese Carmelite nun, Servant of God Sr. Antonia d’ Astanaco, received a vision of St. Michael in 1751.

The Prince of Heaven told Sr. Antonia to honor him by nine prayers to the nine choirs of angels. Saint Michael promised that whoever would adopt this devotion in his honor would have an escort of one angel from each of the nine choirs of angels when approaching for Holy Communion. He also assured that reciting the chaplet daily would bring about his continual assistance and that of all the the holy angels during life.

Consider this very real scene: Every day, we each have demons coming at us to try and have us cooperate in our own ruin. And as we know, they attack us a thousand different ways. Imagine their dread in approaching us, only to find a phalanx of their former comrades protecting us — the same angels who had already defeated them before time. And standing there, heavenly sword drawn, is the Prince of the heavenly host himself.

If you can, please click on the button and make a donation of $100 to receive one of these spectacular chaplets. And for the sake of clarity, we were only given a hundred for this, so when they're gone, they're gone. It was a labor of love for Bernadette to do this, and we are extremely grateful to her.

She is an Oblate of St. Benedict, and for that reason there is also the medal of St. Benedict attached, which should have the proper formula blessing made over it. Included in the packet will be the instructions on how to pray the chaplet as well as an information sheet on the St. Benedict medal.

The prayers of each small grouping center around each of the nine choirs who are presented to us in Sacred Scripture: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominations, Powers, Virtues, Principalities, Archangels and Angels. Those choirs are found in Isaiah, Genesis, Colossians, Ephesians and Romans (Isa. 6:2; Gen. 3:24; Col. 1:16; Eph. 1:21; Rom. 8:38).

Saint Thomas Aquinas, himself named the Angelic Doctor of the Church, explored the glories of the angelic realm in great detail, writing extensively on them. Meditating on the angels, Michael, the choirs and of course having recourse to our own guardian angel, is an excellent way of keeping the reality of spiritual warfare in front of us.

We pray that Michael will always have his sword drawn in protection of us — and once he has escorted us to the throne of Divine Judgment, that we will witness him sheathe it in our case and lead us into the Beatific Vision where the battle will be over. We will be with the angels we plead to for help now.