This feast day has been held since the early days of the Church, and celebrates all those angels who help, guide, guard and protect us from the assaults of those principalities, powers and dominions opposed to the will of God.
Michael is the chief angel called to this task; hence, the dedication of this feast day in his name. In Hebrew, Michael means “Who is like God.” Unlike Lucifer – or Satan – Michael was not blinded by pride from the gifts God had given him. Michael is the angel who fought against Satan, throwing him out of Heaven.
This is shown in the accompanying picture of Luca Giordano’s (1634-1705 oil on canvas entitled “Saint Michael.”
We thank God that we can call on Michael and other guardian angels to help us in times of adversity and temptation. We also thank God for their presence with us as we celebrate the Holy Mysteries of Our Lord’s Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension at the the most holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Michael is the patron saint of law enforcement officers.
“An Angel stood at the altar of the temple, having a golden censer in his hand, and there was given unto him much incense: and the smoke of the incense ascended up before God, alleluia” – Rev. 8. (From the day’s offertory, page E 118, The People’s Anglican Missal).
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do Thou, O Prince of Heavenly Host – by the Power of God – cast into hell, satan and all evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
As urbanization grows in the U.S., there are new challenges that are arising for churches and church plants. Among them is that of reaching out to and serving communities coming from different socio economics.
In rural and suburban areas, many of these communities are spaced out with much distance in between them. However, in urban metropolitan areas, cities tend grow vertically and less horizontally.
Thus, communities push up against each other very closely to be separated usually by the belt of our friend, GENTRIFICATION. Defined, gentrification is the buying and renovation of houses and stores in deteriorated urban neighborhoods by upper or middle income families or individuals, thus improving property values but often displacing low income families and small businesses.
So as churches and church plants, how do we serve, engage, and reach people from these neighboring communities without repelling or sacrificing a segment of the people for another segment?
Initial research has done among 40 different churches in the US that find themselves couched between urban, ethnically, and socio economically diverse communities. The intent of this article is to share what some are doing to try to engage these communities. Christianity Today
There is a growing feeling that the Services of the Church are too long; and many persons think it a sound feeling, merely because it is a growing one. Let such as have not made up their minds on the subject, suffer themselves, before going into the arguments against our Services, to be arrested by the following considerations.
The Services of our Church, as they now stand, are but a very small part of the ancient Christian worship; and, though people now-a-days think them too long, there can be no doubt that the primitive believers would have thought them too short. Now I am far from considering this as a conclusive argument in the question; as if the primitive believers were right, and people now-a-days wrong; but surely others may fairly be called upon not to assume the reverse. On such points it is safest to assume nothing, but to take facts as we find them; and the facts are these.
In ancient times Christians understood very literally all that the Bible says about prayer. David had said, “Seven time a day do I praise thee;” and St. Paul had said, “Pray always.” These texts they did not feel at liberty to explain away, but complying with them to the letter, praised God seven times a day, besides their morning and evening prayer. Their hours or devotion were, in the day time, 6, 9, 12, and 3, which we called the Horae Canonicae; in the night, 9, 12, and 3, which were called the Nocturns; and besides these the hour of day-break and retiring to bed; not that they set apart these hours in the first instance for public worship,-this was impossible; but they seem to have aimed at praying with one accord, and at one time, even when they could not do so in one place. “The Universal Church,” says Bishop Patrick, “anciently observed certain set hours of prayer, that all Christians throughout the world might at the same time join together to glorify God; and some of them were of opinion, that the Angelical Host, being acquainted with those hours, took that time to join their prayers and praises with those of the Church.” The Hymns and Psalms appropriated to these hours were in the first instance intended only for private meditation; but afterwards, when Religious Societies were formed, and persons who had withdrawn from secular business lived together for purposes of devotion, chanting was introduced, and they were arranged for congregational worship. Throughout the Churches which used the Latin tongue, the same Services were adopted with very little variation: and in Roman Catholic countries they continue in use, with only a few modern interpolations, even to this day.
The length of these Services will be in some degree understood from the fact, that in the course of every week they go through the whole book of Psalms. The writer has been told by a distinguished person, who was once a Roman Catholic Priest, that the time required for their performance averages three hours a day throughout the year. Continue Reading
Wenceslas, born towards the end of the ninth century, was the son of a Christian Duke of Bohemia, but his mother was a harsh and cruel pagan. His holy grandmother, Ludmilla, seeing the danger to the future king, asked to bring him up. Wenceslas was educated by her good offices in the true faith, and under her tutelage acquired an exceptional devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. At the death of his father, however, he was still a minor, and his mother assumed the government and passed a series of persecuting laws. In the interests of the Faith, Wenceslas, encouraged by his grandmother, claimed and obtained through the support of the people, a large portion of the country as his own kingdom. Soon afterwards his grandmother was martyred, out of hatred of her faith and services to her country, while making her thanksgiving after Holy Communion.
His mother secured the apostasy and alliance of her second son, Boleslas, who became henceforth her ally against the Christians. Wenceslas in the meantime ruled as the brave and pious king of Bohemia. When his kingdom was attacked, the prince of the invading army, which had been called in by certain seditious individuals, was approaching with a lance to slay him. This prince, named Radislas, saw two celestial spirits beside him; he had already seen him make the sign of the cross and then heard a voice saying not to strike him. These marvels so astonished him that he descended from his horse, knelt at the feet of Wenceslas and asked his pardon. Peace was then reestablished in the land.
In the service of God Saint Wenceslas was constant, planting with his own hands the wheat and pressing the grapes for Holy Mass, at which he never failed to assist each day. He provided for the poor and himself took what they needed to them at night, to spare them the shame they might incur if their poverty became public knowledge. He desired to introduce the Benedictine Order into his kingdom, but was struck down by a violent death before he could do so and himself enter a monastery, as he wished to do.
His piety provided the occasion for his death. After a banquet at his brother’s palace, to which he had been treacherously invited and where he manifested great gentleness towards his brother and mother, he went to pray at night before the tabernacle, as he was accustomed to do. There, at midnight on the feast of the Angels in the year 938, he received the crown of martyrdom by the sword, at the hand of his own brother.
Reflection: Saint Wenceslas teaches us that the safest retreat amid the trials of life, or to prepare for the stroke of death, is the sanctuary of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. – Calefactory
Cosmas and Damian (3rd century) were brothers who ended up being martyred for their faith in Christ. As physicians, they combined their devout faith and talents to heal both the souls and bodies of their fellow man, and they are a testimony to the calling of all physicians.
They serve as examples of godly calling to the ministry of healing, in that they did all their work without regard to being paid for their services – a true testimony and poignant reminder to modern physicians, who face the temptation we all have – that of being much too temporally minded in life.
Because they accepted no pay for their services, they were called anargyroi, or “the silverless”.
The following is from Lydia Bauman’s forthcoming book, “The Great Themes of Art: Medicine” which contains observations regarding Cosmas and Damian and the above oil on wood painting. It is entitled “Legendary transplantation of a leg by Saints Cosmas and Damian, assisted by angels.” The painting is a 16th century work by the Master of Stetten, and resides in the Landesmuseum Wurttemberg museum in Stuttgart, Germany…
“Their most famous and the most unlikely medical feat was to successfully, and painlessly, perform an organ transplant. They miraculously grafted a healthy leg of a dead Ethiopian to the stump of a diseased leg of a christian verger, Justinian. We see the black skinned limb being joined up with the white body of the white patient. This is an impossibility under any circumstances, let alone when performed under such primitive conditions and with nothing more effective than a bandage to bind the two parts of the leg together. The effect is both gruesome and strangely comical.”
“But the two good doctors have something doctors today do not have: divine intervention. Three angels are in attendance, like nurses in an operation theatre, handing over instruments, straightening the covers, clearing up. The artistʼs deadpan illustration of the miraculous event, makes us feel that this may have really happened. It is a tribute to the power of human faith in God and his benevolence in the face of human helplessness.”
Their martyrdom occurred during the persecution of Diocletian in 285 a.d. After being brought before the prefect Lysias they were beheaded.
Meditating on the gospel lesson appointed for today, which examines how Our Lord healed the multitudes at the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, we are reminded that He is the source of all physical and spiritual healing.
Following Christ, may we, like Saints Cosmas and Damian, be instruments through which His healing power can both save and heal the souls of those who are downtrodden and destitute.
“Our soul is escaped even as a bird out of the snare of the fowler. V. The snare is broken, and we are delivered: our help standeth in the Name of the Lord, who hath made heaven and earth” – Ps. 124. (From the day’s gradual, page F 11, The People’s Anglican Missal).
(Her Order’s establishment 1218)
The story of Our Lady of Ransom is, at its outset, that of Saint Peter Nolasco, born in Languedoc about 1189. At the age of twenty-five he took a vow of chastity and made over his vast estates to the Church. After making a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Montserrat, he went to Barcelona where he began to practice various works of charity. He conceived the idea of establishing an Order for the redemption of captives seized by the Moors on the seas and in Spain itself; they were being cruelly tormented in their African prisons to make them deny their faith. He spoke of it to the king of Aragon, James I, who knew him well and already respected him as a Saint; for the king had already asked for his prayers when he sent out his armies to combat the Moors, and he attributed his victories to those prayers.
In effect all the Christians of Europe, and above all of Spain, were praying a great deal to obtain from God the remedy for the great evil that had befallen them. The divine Will was soon manifested. On the same night, August 1, 1218, the Blessed Virgin appeared to Saint Peter, to his confessor, Raymund of Pennafort, and to the king, and through these three servants of God established a work of the most perfect charity, the redemption of captives.
On that night, while the Church was celebrating the feast of Saint Peter in Chains, the Virgin Mary came from heaven and appeared first to Saint Peter, saying that She indeed desired the establishment of a religious Order bearing the name of Her mercy. Its members would undertake to deliver Christian captives and offer themselves, if necessary, as a gage. Word of the miracle soon spread over the entire kingdom; and on August 10th the king went to the cathedral for a Mass celebrated by the bishop of Barcelona. Saint Raymund went up into the pulpit and narrated his vision, with admirable eloquence and fervor. The king besought the blessing of the bishop for the heaven-sent plan, and the bishop bestowed the habit on Saint Peter, who emitted the solemn vow to give himself as a hostage if necessary.
The Order, thus solemnly established in Spain, was approved by Gregory IX under the name of Our Lady of Mercy. By the grace of God and under the protection of His Virgin Mother, the Order spread rapidly. Its growth was increased as the charity and piety of its members was observed; they very often followed Her directive to give themselves up to voluntary slavery when necessary, to aid the good work. It was to return thanks to God and the Blessed Virgin that a feast day was instituted and observed on September 24th, first in this Order of Our Lady, then everywhere in Spain and France. It was finally extended to the entire Church by Innocent XII.
Reflection: Saint Peter Nolasco and his knights were not priests, and yet they considered that the salvation of their neighbor was entrusted to them. We, too, can by good counsel and by prayer, but above all by holy example, assist the salvation of our brethren, and thereby secure our own.
It is a matter of surprise to some persons, that the ecclesiastical system under which we find ourselves, is so faintly enjoined on us in Scripture. One very sufficient explanation of the fact will be found in considering that the Bible is not intended to teach us matters of disciple so much as matters of faith; i. e. those doctrines, the reception of which are necessary to salvation. But another reason may be suggested, which is well worth our attentive consideration.
The Gospel is a Law of Liberty. We are treated as sons, not as servants; not subjected to a code of formal commands, but addressed as those who love GOD, and wish to please Him. When a man gives orders to those whom he thinks will mistake him, or are perverse, he speaks pointedly and explicitly; but when he gives directions to friends, he will trust much to their knowledge of his feelings and wishes, he leaves much to their discretion, and tells them not so much what he would have done in detail, as what are the objects he would have accomplished. Now this is the way CHRIST has spoken to us under the New Covenant; and apparently with this reason, to try us, whether or not we really love Him as our LORD and SAVIOUR.
Accordingly, there is no part, perhaps, of the ecclesiastical system, which is not faintly traced in Scripture, and no part which is much more than faintly traced. The question which a reverend and affectionate faith will ask, is “what is most likely to please CHRIST?” And this is just the question that obtains and answer in Scripture; which contains just so much as intimations of what is most likely to please Him. Of course different minds will differ as to the degree of clearness with which this or that practice is enjoined, yet I think no one will consider the state of the case, as I have put it, exaggerated on the whole.
Many duties are intimated to us by example, not by precept-many are implied merely-others can only be inferred from a comparison of passages-and others perhaps are contained only in the Jewish Law. I will mention some specimens to assist the reflection of the reader. Continue Reading
Bishop of Valencia
Saint Thomas, the glory of the Spanish Church in the sixteenth century, was born in the diocese of Toledo in 1488. His mother was a Christian of extraordinary tenderness for the poor. God worked a miracle for her one day, when her servants had given away absolutely all the flour in their storeroom. When another beggar came to the door, she told them to go back once more and look again, and they found the storeroom filled with flour. Her little son followed his mother’s example, and one day gave away, to six poor persons in succession, the six young chicks which had been following the hen around in the yard. When his mother asked where they were, he said, “You didn’t leave any bread in the house, Mama, so I gave them the chicks! I would have given the hen if another beggar had come.”
At the age of fifteen years he began his studies and succeeded so well he was judged fit to teach philosophy and theology in a college of Alcala, and then at Salamanca. When his father died he returned to Villanova to dispose of his patrimony. He made his house into a hospital, keeping only what was needed for his mother, and gave the rest to the poor. At the age of twenty-eight he entered the Order of the Hermits of Saint Augustine at Salamanca, becoming professed in 1517.
When ordained a priest three years later, he continued his teaching of theology, but also began to preach so remarkably well that he was compared with Saint Paul and the prophet Elias. The city was reformed, and after the Emperor Charles V heard him once, he returned and often mingled with the crowd to listen, finally making Saint Thomas his official preacher.
He became Prior of his Order in three cities, then three times a Provincial Superior. His sanctity continued to increase, and he was nominated archbishop of Valencia in 1544; he had refused a similar offer sixteen years earlier, but this time was obliged to accept. After a long drought, rain fell on the day he assumed his new office. He arrived as a pilgrim accompanied by one fellow monk, and was not recognized in the convent of his Order when the two travelers came asking for shelter during the rain. He was obliged to reveal his identity when the Prior, who wondered where the awaited archbishop might be, asked him if perchance it was he.
The new Archbishop was so poor that he was given money for furnishings, but he took it to the hospital for the indigent. On being led to his throne in church, he pushed the silken cushions aside, and with tears kissed the ground. His first visit was to the prison. Two-thirds of his episcopal revenues were annually spent in alms. He daily fed five hundred needy persons, made himself responsible for the bringing up of the city’s orphans, and sheltered neglected foundlings with a mother’s care. During his eleven years’ episcopate, not one poor maiden was married without an alms from the archbishop. Spurred by his example, the rich and the selfish became liberal and generous. And when, on the Nativity of Our Lady, 1555, after one week of illness, Saint Thomas was about to breathe his last, he gave his bed to a poor man and asked to be placed on the floor. It has been said that at his death he was probably the only poor man in his see.
Reflection: When a refractory priest had not heeded his bishop’s remonstrances, Saint Thomas took him into a room apart, uncovered his shoulders and knelt before his crucifix, saying: “My brother, my sins are the reason you have not changed your life and listened to my warnings. It is just for me to bear the penalty of my fault.” And he scourged himself cruelly. This frequent practice brought many to tears and reform of their lives. In this way a perfect Pastor inspired his entire flock with truly Christian sentiments. –Calefactory.org