Beyond the Merely Natural
by
Thomas A. Droleskey
"Just keep your mouth shut and teach political science."
Well, that was the advice a priest in the conciliar structures gave me around 1994 when I had recounted to him some of the times I had gotten in trouble in secular colleges for teaching political science as a Catholic, including remonstrating with one of my students after she had killed her preborn baby. "Just keep your mouth shut and teach political science." Not exactly the sort of advice I would have gotten from, say, the Cure of Ars, Saint Jean-Marie Vianney. "Just keep your mouth shut and teach political science."
A Catholic cannot keep his "mouth shut" about the truths of the Holy Faith. Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ told us that we must indeed bear Him a visible, tangible witness in the midst of an unbelieving world:
And calling the multitude together with his disciples, he said to them: If any man will follow me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel, shall save it.
For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For he that shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation: the Son of man also will be ashamed of him, when he shall come in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. (Mk. 8: 34-38)
One who teaches has an obligation to teach the truth. Yes, there are different ways to present the immutable truths of the Faith. Different circumstances may require different approaches. Speaking to a group of people on one occasion requires a more direct approach, for example, than when one has a longer period of time to lay the foundation for God's ineffable graces to work in the souls of hearers, prompting them to be at least open to listening to the truths of the Faith than they would be otherwise. Each teacher has a different personality and a different way of reaching souls. What works for one person may not work for another, which is why anyone who teaches must instruct his Guardian Angel to greet the Guardian Angels of each of his students before the beginning of each class session so as to prepare their souls for the lecture material to presented on any given day. The work of teaching, therefore, cannot be separated from the Catholic Faith. It cannot be separated from giving the Blessed Trinity honor and glory through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It cannot be separated from seeking the good of the souls who are placed before a teacher to be instructed in nothing but the truth.
It is thus impossible to "just keep your mouth shut and teach political science" as the naturalistically-oriented priest told me thirteen years ago. One cannot understand politics without understanding human nature. One cannot understand human nature without understanding Special Creation, the Fall from Grace, the Incarnation, the Nativity, Hidden Years, Public Ministry and Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Divine Redeemer, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. One cannot understand the development of Western institutions of civil governance unless one examines the ideas of various Greek and Roman pagan philosophers from the perspective of the Natural Law and how those ideas can be understood fully only in light of the Deposit of Faith that the God-Man entrusted exclusively to the Catholic Church. One cannot understand the principles of just governance unless he is taught how the saintly civil potentates of Christendom ruled for the honor and glory of God and for the good of the souls of their subjects, mindful that their own salvation depended upon obeying God's laws and administering justice according to the Mind of Christ Himself. No, it is not possible "just keep your moth shut and teach political science."
Pope Leo XIII noted in Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890, that Faith comes by hearing. Everything we do must redound to the good of souls, starting with our own. The following words, written in the context of the chief duties of Christians as citizens, apply also to the work of teachers:
The chief elements of this duty consist in professing openly and unflinchingly the Catholic doctrine, and in propagating it to the utmost of our power. For, as is often said, with the greatest truth, there is nothing so hurtful to Christian wisdom as that it should not be known, since it possesses, when loyally received, inherent power to drive away error. So soon as Catholic truth is apprehended by a simple and unprejudiced soul, reason yields assent. Now, faith, as a virtue, is a great boon of divine grace and goodness; nevertheless, the objects themselves to which faith is to be applied are scarcely known in any other way than through the hearing. "How shall they believe Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? Faith then cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." Since, then, faith is necessary for salvation, it follows that the word of Christ must be preached. The office, indeed, of preaching, that is, of teaching, lies by divine right in the province of the pastors, namely, of the bishops whom "the Holy Spirit has placed to rule the Church of God.'' It belongs, above all, to the Roman Pontiff, vicar of Jesus Christ, established as head of the universal Church, teacher of all that pertains to morals and faith.
No one, however, must entertain the notion that private individuals are prevented from taking some active part in this duty of teaching, especially those on whom God has bestowed gifts of mind with the strong wish of rendering themselves useful. These, so often as circumstances demand, may take upon themselves, not, indeed, the office of the pastor, but the task of communicating to others what they have themselves received, becoming, as it were, living echoes of their masters in the faith. Such co-operation on the part of the laity has seemed to the Fathers of the Vatican Council so opportune and fruitful of good that they thought well to invite it. "All faithful Christians, but those chiefly who are in a prominent position, or engaged in teaching, we entreat, by the compassion of Jesus Christ, and enjoin by the authority of the same God and Savior, that they bring aid to ward off and eliminate these errors from holy Church, and contribute their zealous help in spreading abroad the light of undefiled faith.'' Let each one, therefore, bear in mind that he both can and should, so far as may be, preach the Catholic faith by the authority of his example, and by open and constant profession of the obligations it imposes. In respect, consequently, to the duties that bind us to God and the Church, it should be borne earnestly in mind that in propagating Christian truth and warding off errors the zeal of the laity should, as far as possible, be brought actively into play.
We live at a time in salvation history when, most unfortunately, teachers in all of the various disciplines are faced with the terrible reality of young people who have been spiritually aborted by the "catechesis" offered them in the conciliar schools or who have been deprived of the truths of the Faith altogether by belong to various false religions with no effort made by anyone to bring them out of the darkness into the light of the true Faith. Any teacher who, through absolutely no merits of his own, finds himself with the gift of the Catholic Faith must realize that he has an obligation to present the truths of the Faith as clearly as possible as they relate to his own field of study, recognizing that his students may never have another opportunity at ay point in their lives to be challenged by these truths. To shirk this responsibility in the name of career security or human respect is to shirk one's duties to bear witness to the Light of the World by salting it with His Holy Truths:
Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you. You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men. You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house.
So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled. He therefore that shall break one of these least commandments, and shall so teach men, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But he that shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, that unless your justice abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Mt. 5: 11-20)
The spiritual wreckage wrought by conciliarism's apostles of Modernism and by the scions of the anti-Incarnational presuppositions of Modernity in the world is truly beyond all telling. It is so sad to see young people lost and confused, oblivious even to natural concepts of honesty and integrity. Alas, it is impossible to truly gasp the importance of the supernatural and natural virtues unless one's conscience is informed by a correct understanding of the Catholic Faith. Pope Leo XIII put the matter this way in Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900:
God alone is Life. All other beings partake of life, but are not life. Christ, from all eternity and by His very nature, is "the Life," just as He is the Truth, because He is God of God. From Him, as from its most sacred source, all life pervades and ever will pervade creation. Whatever is, is by Him; whatever lives, lives by Him. For by the Word "all things were made; and without Him was made nothing that was made." This is true of the natural life; but, as We have sufficiently indicated above, we have a much higher and better life, won for us by Christ's mercy, that is to say, "the life of grace," whose happy consummation is "the life of glory," to which all our thoughts and actions ought to be directed. The whole object of Christian doctrine and morality is that "we being dead to sin, should live to justice" (I Peter ii., 24)-that is, to virtue and holiness. In this consists the moral life, with the certain hope of a happy eternity. This justice, in order to be advantageous to salvation, is nourished by Christian faith. "The just man liveth by faith" (Galatians iii., II). "Without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews xi., 6). Consequently Jesus Christ, the creator and preserver of faith, also preserves and nourishes our moral life. This He does chiefly by the ministry of His Church. To Her, in His wise and merciful counsel, He has entrusted certain agencies which engender the supernatural life, protect it, and revive it if it should fail. This generative and conservative power of the virtues that make for salvation is therefore lost, whenever morality is dissociated from divine faith. A system of morality based exclusively on human reason robs man of his highest dignity and lowers him from the supernatural to the merely natural life. Not but that man is able by the right use of reason to know and to obey certain principles of the natural law. But though he should know them all and keep them inviolate through life-and even this is impossible without the aid of the grace of our Redeemer-still it is vain for anyone without faith to promise himself eternal salvation. "If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he burneth" john xv., 6). "He that believeth not shall be condemned" (Mark xvi., 16). We have but too much evidence of the value and result of a morality divorced from divine faith. How is it that, in spite of all the zeal for the welfare of the masses, nations are in such straits and even distress, and that the evil is daily on the increase? We are told that society is quite able to help itself; that it can flourish without the assistance of Christianity, and attain its end by its own unaided efforts. Public administrators prefer a purely secular system of government. All traces of the religion of our forefathers are daily disappearing from political life and administration. What blindness! Once the idea of the authority of God as the Judge of right and wrong is forgotten, law must necessarily lose its primary authority and justice must perish: and these are the two most powerful and most necessary bonds of society. Similarly, once the hope and expectation of eternal happiness is taken away, temporal goods will be greedily sought after. Every man will strive to secure the largest share for himself. Hence arise envy, jealousy, hatred. The consequences are conspiracy, anarchy, nihilism. There is neither peace abroad nor security at home. Public life is stained with crime.
So great is this struggle of the passions and so serious the dangers involved, that we must either anticipate ultimate ruin or seek for an efficient remedy. It is of course both right and necessary to punish malefactors, to educate the masses, and by legislation to prevent crime in every possible way: but all this is by no means sufficient. The salvation of the nations must be looked for higher. A power greater than human must be called in to teach men's hearts, awaken in them the sense of duty, and make them better. This is the power which once before saved the world from destruction when groaning under much more terrible evils. Once remove all impediments and allow the Christian spirit to revive and grow strong in a nation, and that nation will be healed. The strife between the classes and the masses will die away; mutual rights will be respected. If Christ be listened to, both rich and poor will do their duty. The former will realise that they must observe justice and charity, the latter self-restraint and moderation, if both are to be saved. Domestic life will be firmly established ( by the salutary fear of God as the Lawgiver. In the same way the precepts of the natural law, which dictates respect for lawful authority and obedience to the laws, will exercise their influence over the people. Seditions and conspiracies will cease. Wherever Christianity rules over all without let or hindrance there the order established by Divine Providence is preserved, and both security and prosperity are the happy result. The common welfare, then, urgently demands a return to Him from whom we should never have gone astray; to Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life,-and this on the part not only of individuals but of society as a whole. We must restore Christ to this His own rightful possession. All elements of the national life must be made to drink in the Life which proceedeth from Him- legislation, political institutions, education, marriage and family life, capital and labour. Everyone must see that the very growth of civilisation which is so ardently desired depends greatly upon this, since it is fed and grows not so much by material wealth and prosperity, as by the spiritual qualities of morality and virtue.
To wit, one of the students I taught in my now ended intersession course plagiarized a significant portion of a take-home essay from an internet source. It was evident that the student did not write that part of the essay, which had nothing to do with my class lecture on Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. The student went to the trouble of changing a few words here and there, something that I noted in great detail for my departmental chairman, who will deal with the inevitable appeal that the student will lodge. Young people have been indemnified for so long, ladies and gentlemen, that it never occurs to them that there will be consequences for their actions in this life, no less at the moment of a Particular Judgment they have never been taught will come their way when they have breathed their last breaths in this mortal vale of tears. Lessons that should have been taught at home and reinforced in schools and parishes have to be learned later in life, if at all, forcing the few of us in the academic world who see things through the eyes of the true Faith to be viewed as monsters solely because we care about our own souls as well as those of the students whom Divine Providence has placed before us to instruct.
Not all students resist efforts to educate them in ways beyond the merely natural. Not at all. Indeed, a few students from the recently concluded course, which will be my last until perhaps the late-Summer, wrote very thoughtful notes of appreciation shortly after the course ended. I love teaching! It was terrific to in the classroom once again even though I always know that there will be a student or two quick to respond viscerally to any mention of such things as absolute moral truth, no less that the fullness of truth resides only in the Catholic Church. It would not matter, therefore, if not a single student responded positively to anything that was taught. Efforts must be made, regardless of the results, to plant the seeds that might, when watered with the grace of God that flows into human hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, the Mediatrix of All Graces, result in the flowering of the authentic Faith in the souls of those one is privileged to instruct. Everything else is just given unto Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart as her consecrated slave to be used as she sees fit for the honor and glory of the Blessed Trinity and for the good of souls.
Yes, we must move beyond the merely natural at all times in order to see with the eyes of the true Faith. Pope Saint Pius X noted in his encyclical letter Singulari Quadam, September 24, 1912:
No matter what the Christian does, even in the realm of temporal goods, he cannot ignore the supernatural good. Rather, according to the dictates of Christian philosophy, he must order all things to the ultimate end, namely, the Highest Good.
Pius XI amplified this point in his encyclical letter on the Christian Education of Youth, Divini Illius Magistri, December 30, 1929, providing all who teach, including homeschooling parents, with a perfect summary of how we move beyond the merely natural in order to view all of the events of our lives at all times with the eyes of the soul:
The proper and immediate end of Christian education is to cooperate with divine grace in forming the true and perfect Christian, that is, to form Christ Himself in those regenerated by Baptism, according to the emphatic expression of the Apostle: "My little children, of whom I am in labor again, until Christ be formed in you." For the true Christian must live a supernatural life in Christ: "Christ who is your life," and display it in all his actions: "That the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh."
For precisely this reason, Christian education takes in the whole aggregate of human life, physical and spiritual, intellectual and moral, individual, domestic and social, not with a view of reducing it in any way, but in order to elevate, regulate and perfect it, in accordance with the example and teaching of Christ.
Hence the true Christian, product of Christian education, is the supernatural man who thinks, judges and acts constantly and consistently in accordance with right reason illumined by the supernatural light of the example and teaching of Christ; in other words, to use the current term, the true and finished man of character. For, it is not every kind of consistency and firmness of conduct based on subjective principles that makes true character, but only constancy in following the eternal principles of justice, as is admitted even by the pagan poet when he praises as one and the same "the man who is just and firm of purpose." And on the other hand, there cannot be full justice except in giving to God what is due to God, as the true Christian does.
The scope and aim of Christian education as here described, appears to the worldly as an abstraction, or rather as something that cannot be attained without the suppression or dwarfing of the natural faculties, and without a renunciation of the activities of the present life, and hence inimical to social life and temporal prosperity, and contrary to all progress in letters, arts and sciences, and all the other elements of civilization. To a like objection raised by the ignorance and the prejudice of even cultured pagans of a former day, and repeated with greater frequency and insistence in modern times, Tertullian has replied as follows:
"We are not strangers to life. We are fully aware of the gratitude we owe to God, our Lord and Creator. We reject none of the fruits of His handiwork; we only abstain from their immoderate or unlawful use. We are living in the world with you; we do not shun your forum, your markets, your baths, your shops, your factories, your stables, your places of business and traffic. We take shop with you and we serve in your armies; we are farmers and merchants with you; we interchange skilled labor and display our works in public for your service. How we can seem unprofitable to you with whom we live and of whom we are, I know not."
The true Christian does not renounce the activities of this life, he does not stunt his natural faculties; but he develops and perfects them, by coordinating them with the supernatural. He thus ennobles what is merely natural in life and secures for it new strength in the material and temporal order, no less then in the spiritual and eternal.
This fact is proved by the whole history of Christianity and its institutions, which is nothing else but the history of true civilization and progress up to the present day. It stands out conspicuously in the lives of the numerous Saints, whom the Church, and she alone, produces, in whom is perfectly realized the purpose of Christian education, and who have in every way ennobled and benefited human society. Indeed, the Saints have ever been, are, and ever will be the greatest benefactors of society, and perfect models for every class and profession, for every state and condition of life, from the simple and uncultured peasant to the master of sciences and letters, from the humble artisan to the commander of armies, from the father of a family to the ruler of peoples and nations, from simple maidens and matrons of the domestic hearth to queens and empresses. What shall we say of the immense work which has been accomplished even for the temporal well-being of men by missionaries of the Gospel, who have brought and still bring to barbarous tribes the benefits of civilization together with the light of the Faith? What of the founders of so many social and charitable institutions, of the vast numbers of saintly educators, men and women, who have perpetuated and multiplied their life work, by leaving after them prolific institutions of Christian education, in aid of families and for the inestimable advantage of nations?
Such are the fruits of Christian education. Their price and value is derived from the supernatural virtue and life in Christ which Christian education forms and develops in man. Of this life and virtue Christ our Lord and Master is the source and dispenser. By His example He is at the same time the universal model accessible to all, especially to the young in the period of His hidden life, a life of labor and obedience, adorned with all virtues, personal, domestic and social, before God and men.
Now all this array of priceless educational treasures which We have barely touched upon, is so truly a property of the Church as to form her very substance, since she is the mystical body of Christ, the immaculate spouse of Christ, and consequently a most admirable mother and an incomparable and perfect teacher. This thought inspired St. Augustine, the great genius of whose blessed death we are about to celebrate the fifteenth centenary, with accents of tenderest love for so glorious a mother:
"O Catholic Church, true Mother of Christians! Not only doest thou preach to us, as is meet, how purely and chastely we are to worship God Himself, Whom to possess is life most blessed; thou does moreover so cherish neighborly love and charity, that all the infirmities to which sinful souls are subject, find their most potent remedy in thee. Childlike thou are in molding the child, strong with the young man, gentle with the aged, dealing with each according to his needs of mind of body. Thou does subject child to parent in a sort of free servitude, and settest parent over child in a jurisdiction of love. Thou bindest brethren to brethren by the bond of religion, stronger and closer then the bond of blood .... Thou unitest citizen to citizen, nation to nation, yea, all men, in a union not of companionship only, but of brotherhood, reminding them of their common origin. Thou teachest kings to care for their people, and biddest people to be subject to their kings. Thou teachest assiduously to whom honor is due, to whom love, to whom reverence, to whom fear, to whom comfort, to whom rebuke, to whom punishment; showing us that whilst not all things nor the same things are due to all, charity is due to all and offense to none."
The world in which we live has lost sight of all that belongs to God as He has revealed Himself exclusively through the Catholic Church. Most people, therefore, are lost in a perpetual fog of confusion and irrationality, which is exactly what the devil desires to lead them into Hell for all eternity. In this season after Epiphany and before Septuagesima Sunday, which is February 4, 2007, we must come to understand more fully that each of us teaches by word and by deed. Each of us has an obligation to make the liberating truths of Our Lord manifest in the lives of all those whom God places in our paths. Sure, they are many and varied ways to do this. Granted. It might be as simple as passing out Miraculous Medals and Green Scapulars. However, we must try to do what we can by our prayers and fasting and sacrifices and efforts to bring the souls out the darkness that was preferred by so many when Our Lord became Flesh and dwelt amongst us.
It is not for nothing that Pope Saint Pius V mandated the reading of the Prologue to the Gospel of Saint John as the Last Gospel of most Masses during the year, putting his papal seal of approval of a pious practice that had begun in the Twelfth Century as priests recited these words privately as they walked out of the sanctuary:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to give testimony of the light, that all men might believe through him. He was not the light, but was to give testimony of the light. That was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name. Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (Jn. 1: 1-14)
No, we must never "shut up" about the Faith. Not in our homes. Not with our relatives. Not with our friends. Not with our coworkers. Not in the college classroom. Not in the mass media. To paraphrase the late Bert Lahr, "not no how, not no way." The salvation of the souls for whom Our Lord shed every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross, including our own souls, demands that we manifest the truths of the Faith by word and by deed, especially at a time when the "antichurch," as one scholar suggests calling the conciliar church, is malforming the souls of baptized Catholics, letting them walk in the darkness throughout their lives, and leaving those who are non-Catholic to believe that their salvation is absolutely assured.
We must proclaim the truths of the Faith as the consecrated slaves of Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, being earnest about making this New Year of 2007 one of reparation to that same Immaculate Heart so that the apostasies of the moment that have eviscerated so many souls will be wiped away sooner rather than later. May our fervent recitation of the mysteries of Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary each and every day help us--and all those whom God places in our lives, yes, even those we meet fleetingly--to move beyond the merely natural in order to do all for the honor and glory of God as befits redeemed creatures.
There will come a time when all men and women and children will view the world supernaturally. That time will come during the Reign of Mary Immaculate. May we do nothing to impede--and everything to promote--that glorious day of the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Vivat Christus Rex!
Our Lady of Good Success, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.
Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.
Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.
Pope Saint Marcellus I, pray for us.
Saint Felix, pray for us.
Saint Hilary, pray for us.
Saint Paul, pray for us.
Saint Maurus, pray for us.
Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us.
Saint Thomas the Apostle, pray for us.
Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, pray for us.
Saint John the Beloved, pray for us.
The Holy Innocents, pray for us.
Saint Thomas a Becket, pray for us.
Pope Saint Sylvester I, pray for us.
Saint Lucy, pray for us.
Saint Agatha, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, pray for us.
Saint Agnes, pray for us.
Saint Cecilia, pray for us.
Saint John Mary Vianney, pray for us.
Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.
Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.
Saint Athanasius, pray for us.
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, pray for us.
Saint Isaac Jogues, pray for us.
Saint Rene Goupil, pray for us.
Saint John Lalonde, pray for us.
Saint Gregory Lalamont, pray for us.
Saint Noel Chabanel, pray for us.
Saint Charles Garnier, pray for us.
Saint Anthony Daniel, pray for us.
Saint John DeBrebeuf, pray for us.
Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, pray for us.
Saint Dominic, pray for us.
Saint Basil, pray for us.
Saint Augustine, pray for us.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.
Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.
Saint Sebastian, pray for us.
Saint Tarcisius, pray for us.
Saint Bridget of Sweden, pray for us.
Saint Gerard Majella, pray for us.
Saint John of the Cross, pray for us.
Saint John Bosco, pray for us.
Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us.
Pope Saint Pius X, pray for us
Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us.
Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich, pray for us.
Venerable Pauline Jaricot, pray for us.
Father Miguel Augustin Pro, pray for us.
Francisco Marto, pray for us.
Jacinta Marto, pray for us.
Juan Diego, pray for us.
The Longer Version of the Saint Michael the Archangel Prayer, composed by Pope Leo XIII, 1888
O glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, be our defense in the terrible warfare which we carry on against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, spirits of evil. Come to the aid of man, whom God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil. Fight this day the battle of our Lord, together with the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in heaven. That cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels. Behold this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage. Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the Name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay, and cast into eternal perdition, souls destined for the crown of eternal glory. That wicked dragon pours out. as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity. These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on Her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck the sheep may be scattered. Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory. They venerate thee as their protector and patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious powers of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude. Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church. Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly conciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating down the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations. Amen.
Verse: Behold the Cross of the Lord; be scattered ye hostile powers.
Response: The Lion of the Tribe of Juda has conquered the root of David.
Verse: Let Thy mercies be upon us, O Lord.
Response: As we have hoped in Thee.
Verse: O Lord hear my prayer.
Response: And let my cry come unto Thee.
Verse: Let us pray. O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon Thy holy Name, and as suppliants, we implore Thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin, immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all other unclean spirits, who wander about the world for the injury of the human race and the ruin of our souls.
Response: Amen.
