Today is the feast of Sts. Michael, Gabriel & Raphael. It is one of my favorite feast days because St. Michael is the patron saint of both my husband and my son. I happen to think Saint Michael is a wonderful patron saint for boys because he is a strong servant of God. Spirituality is so often seen by men as a "woman thing" and I think saints like St. Michael go a long way toward remedying that.
On the old calendar, today was known as "Michaelmas" and was the feast of St. Michael. St. Gabriel's feast was March 24 and St. Raphael on October 24. So, I tend to think of today as the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel. Michaelmas was a harvest feast day and still has special food associated with it in many European countries. In the Great Britian, goose was the traditional meal for Michaelmas, eaten for prosperity. France has waffles or Gaufres and the traditional fare in Scotland used to be St. Michael's Bannock (Struan Micheil) — a large, scone-like cake. In Italy, gnocchi is the traditional fare.
St. Michael is an important saint. His name appears in Scripture four times both in the Old and the New Testaments. He is a saint we share with Judasim. We can read about Michael twice in the Book of Daniel, and once each in the Epistle of St. Jude and the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation tells of a battle in Heaven between Michael and and Satan. He is the saint traditionally invoked against evil. He is the patron of Police, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, soldiers and security forces. He is truly a saint for our times!
There is a traditional prayer said to Saint Michael which is worth knowing:
Saint Michael the Archangel
defend us in the day of battle.
Be our safeguard against the
wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray.
And do thou, oh prince of the Heavenly Host,
by the power of God, cast into hell,
Satan, and all the evil spirits
that prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls.
5 comments:
Ahhh, Archangel Michael. He was the first one I called on when I began my scary, awakening journey. This morning I had a great prayer/meditation time releasing some old stuff. When I logged on and saw that it was St. Michael's Feast Day, I realized that I didn't call on him for strength (like I used to ALWAYS do). So, I'm doing that now. My dear friend, Michael, will get me through! Thanks for pointing this out to me.
You're welcome! He is one of the coolest angels, IMO! Very powerful!
I also love the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel. The feast of the Guardian angels is this Sunday, Oct. 2nd.
Also, this Sunday is the Sanctity of Life Day. Please all, pray the Rosary that day. Please see this website: http://bluearmy.com/prolife/rosary.html
mk, I have a friend who took a seminar on cord-cutting. It's worth looking into. It can be quite healing. And you are right, Michael is quite powerful with this. I picture his big strong sword cutting away whatever we don't need to bring forward with us. Then he fills me with Love and Light. Hope this helps.
Cool! Very interesting application of cutting cords. Never thought of it that way.
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