Saint Michael and All Angels

The Collect of the Day
Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals: Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may help and defend us here on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Psalm
103

The Readings

Genesis 28:10-17     +     Revelation 12:7-12     +     John 1:47-51

War broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon.

~ Revelation 12:7

Angels, at least sentimentally, are not generally very controversial. The idea of guardian angels holds a place in popular imagination, even among many who would not describe themselves as religious, and probably including some whose idea of God is much more agnostic. Statues of angels beautify gardens and cemeteries, and their protecting images hang over children's beds. But for all that, I often find it easier to believe in the demonic than the angelic (though biblically they are two sides of the same coin--demons are fallen angels as recounted in our passage from Revelation). So much of the world we inhabit seems, and has always seemed, to be at the mercy of dark forces, an unending litany of suffering and horror. That is not to deny human agency and complicity in sin, individually, societally, generationally. Clearly, we cannot simply pass off responsibility for the evil we see and experience and take part in  ('the devil made me do it!'). And yet even our best efforts can end in disasters, and our well-intentioned plans sometimes turn a bad situation worse. To see the problems we continue to struggle against as individuals and as societies (violence, sexism, racism, greed, indifference, and on and on), after all this time, can be immensely disheartening. And, for me, it underscores the need for those renunciations that are part of our baptismal rite--renouncing "the spiritual forces of wickedness … the evil powers of this world . . . (and) the sinful desires" that would destroy us (BCP p. 302). And that all too present reality of the darkness of this world also makes me grateful for the reminder today that the dragon and his angels are not the only army on the field; to be reminded "Are not the angels spirits in the divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14); to be reminded that, as the comforting angels ministered to Jesus in his trials (Mark 1:13), so they minister to us; to be reminded, finally, that though the battle rages, still "the LORD has set his throne in heaven, and his kingship has dominion over all" (Psalm 103:19).

Closing Prayer
Give ear to our prayers, O Lord, and while our path lies through the changes and chances of this mortal life, grant us the fellowship of thy saints, the protection of thy holy angels, and the hope that our journey leads to thine eternal and blessed kingdom. Amen.
~from Saint Augustine's Prayer Book, p. 415