St. Michael and All Angels - Rector's Rambling for October 5, 2014

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in the day of battle.  Be our guard and protection against the snares and wickedness of the devil.  May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell, Satan and all evil forces seeking for the ruin of souls.  This we beg in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Although the Feast Day fell on Monday, September 29, we are celebrating this great holy day today, within the Octave (eight day commemoration) of its Solemnity.  Today we sing all the wonderful hymns for this day, including the unofficial “official” hymn of the St. Michael’s Conference for Youth: Christ the fair glory of the holy angels.  During the course of the conference we sing this hymn four times, and many an alumni Michaelite will tell you that the opening notes of this hymn bring to mind the joy of conference weeks past.

Ss. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, three of the four most commonly known archangels, get a mention in the hymn (not mentioned is Uriel from the apocryphal book of II Esdras).  The Eastern Orthodox churches list seven or eight, and there could be thousands for all we don’t know.

The numbers of the ministering spirits are uncountable.  We are blessed to know that they serve God day and night, which we will understand at our earthly end as blessed souls at rest (but not as angels – they are a different created order) in heaven.