The Prayer to St. Michael
Most of us know the St. Michael prayer. If not, we really should. Our family makes a point to pray the prayer as part of our night prayers. Here is the prayer:
St. 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, Who prowl through the world, seeking the ruin of souls.
It is an important prayer of spiritual warfare, which is what we are all about at Rosaries For Life. Pope John Paul II recommended that the prayer be said by all Catholics, and the prayer was introduced by Leo XIII in the late 1800’s, who mandated that it be said after every Low Mass.
The origin of the prayer is said to have arisen from a vision Leo XIII had wherein he saw that the Devil told God he could destroy the Church if given 75 to 100 years of increased power. While this origin is uncertain and cannot be definitively verified, it is certain that from the time the prayer was instituted in 1886 until 1965 (when it was no longer said after Mass by all Catholics), evil was largely held in check within the Church and individual souls in general, though the evils of Naziism and Communism caused plenty of bloodshed and an unprecedented number of martyrs.
When this prayer ceased in 1965, literally all Hell broke loose across the world, and especially in the Church. A few short years after the Prayer to St. Michael ceased to be said, Pope Paul VI stated, “The smoke of Satan has entered the Temple of God (the Church).” Instead of the actual words of Vatican II, we got the “spirit of Vatican II”. The moral level of Christians has plummeted, and the majority of Christians have lost any meaningful faith. For the last 40+ years, Catholics were hardly even taught their faith.
Let us pray the Prayer to St. Michael often, for the restoration of the Church and the “smoke of Satan” to clear.
October 29th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
May be this should somehow be added to our website, I did not know this info on the St. Michael Prayer, Sally