Around the country, the St. Michael Prayer has been making a resurgence at Mass. Given the violence and tragedy recently this should not be surprising. This prayer reminds us of the spiritual battle going on all around us since the beginning of creation and asks for the powerful intercession of the archangel. In the Book of Revelation (12:7-9), St. Michael battles Satan in heaven and casts him and the demons into hell. The prayer asks for Michael’s continued intercession to do just that in our own times.
Devotion to St. Michael spans the centuries, but the well-known prayer has a more recent history. Much like our own times, the late 1800s was a time of turmoil. During the celebration of Mass between 1884 and 1886 Pope Leo XIII had a vision of demonic spirits. Reports at the time claimed that the pope’s face became “pale and fearful.” In response he composed the Prayer to St. Michael and requested that the faithful pray it at the end of Mass. Before the liturgical changes of the Second Vatican Council Low Mass concluded with the “Leonine Prayers.” Among these prayers was the St. Michael Prayer.
St. Paul reminds us that we fight, “not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens” (Eph. 6:12). In addition to political and economic measures to improve our world, we cannot omit the spiritual. The St. Michael Prayer is a prayer for our age and every age.
