A NOVENA TO
SAINT MICHAEL

In these days when it seems like everything’s corrupt and chaotic, both in the church and society at large, this novena to St. Michael, printed below, is a great prayer for spiritual combat against Satan and his fellow demons! This can be prayed for nine days starting on September 20th or on September 21st, to end at his feast day on September 29th, or at any other time that seems appropriate during the year!

It is important now more than ever to remember that God is still in charge; and that in the end His Goodness will triumph over whatever evil he permits us to endure in the name of respecting our free will to choose Him.

Keep In mind that, in addition to the vital sacraments of the Eucharist and Penance, God has given each of us a Guardian Angel to help guide us through the minefields of evil and misfortune in our day-to-day lives and this prayer (also available as a podcast) can help us remember that!

We also have another angel to help us, one of the best fighters we could have, Saint Michael the Archangel, honored in this novena below. It concludes with the famous Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel written by Pope Leo XIII in 1886. It can be prayed alone or in a group setting.

Saint Michael the Archangel, loyal champion of God and His Catholic people, I turn to thee with confidence and seek thy powerful intercession. For the love of God, Who hast made thee so glorious in grace and power, and for the love of the Mother of Jesus, the Queen of the Angels, be pleased to hear my prayer.

Thou knowest the value of my soul in the eyes of God. May no stain of evil ever disfigure its beauty. Help me to conquer the evil spirit who tempts me. I desire to imitate thy loyalty to God and Holy Mother Church and thy great love for God and men. And since thou art God’s messenger for the care of His people, I entrust to thee this special request: here mention your request.

Saint Michael, since thou art, by the will of the Creator, the powerful intercessor of Christians, I have great confidence in thy prayers. I earnestly trust that if it is God’s holy will, my petition will be granted.

Pray for me, Saint Michael, and also for those I love. Protect us in all dangers of body and soul. Help us in our daily needs. Through thy powerful intercession, may we live a holy life, die a happy death and reach Heaven where we may praise and love God with thee forever. Amen

You can then conclude this novena with the well known Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, mentioned earlier.

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 the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God,
cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen

As a reminder, his name Michael comes from his famous battle cry (in Hebrew, Micha’el meaning “Who is Like Unto God?”) which he uttered before defeating these rebellious angels who subsequently became demons.

And who is like unto God indeed? No one! Certainly not any of His angels, nor any of us human beings. Lucifer in his wicked pride sought to raise himself up above his, and subsequently our, Creator.

As a result of being roundly defeated by Saint Michael, Lucifer became Satan and note that when we talk about Satan or the devil here we are also referring to his army of fallen angels, the evil spirits who became demons.

St. Michael makes a great general in this fight between Christ and Satan for our souls! After all, we read in Revelation (12:7-9) that “there was a great battle in heaven; Michael and his angels fought with the dragon...and that great dragon...who is called the devil and Satan, who seduces the whole world...was cast unto the earth, and his angels [the demons] were thrown down with him.”

We find ourselves in such tragic predicaments time and time again, as in our current age in which there has been such a loss of faith, because of those among us who wish to emulate Lucifer’s tragic example and make themselves God. The rogues gallery since our Lord’s birth, from Herod to Hitler and beyond, has included way too many Moloch styled Messiahs!

As a special patron and protector of the Church, St. Michael has been assigned to fight against Satan; to protect faithful souls from him, especially at their death; to champion God’s people; and, further along this line, to escort them to their judgment.

Although we tend to downplay the notion of the devil as being too quaint or outmoded today, he does indeed exist and not just as a symbol of evil, or as a character in a fairytale meant to frighten us.

We obviously can’t excuse all our sins and failures by saying, as the comedian Flip Wilson did in a line he made famous years ago, “The devil made me do it!” After all, God allows us to be tempted but gives us the grace and the free will to choose Him and not the devil instead .

One of Satan’s greatest assets is his camouflage, the belief that he doesn’t exist, and disbelief in Satan and the forces of demonic evil can very well leave us unable to resist them.

Satan was unable to destroy the Catholic Church in the 20th century, but certainly our faith withstood terrible onslaughts just from Hitler and Stalin alone. We are still engaged in a at times brutal war that has gone for all of human history, in one form or another, between God and the devil.

Each of us has had our own battles against the dark side trying to turn us away from eternal life with our Creator. Satan’s idea for our eternal life is one spent with him in hatred and misery and he and his demonic minions are after as many souls that they can drag down to Hell as they can get!

As St. Peter once noted “be sober and watch, because your adversary, the devil as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Prayer and the sacraments are an essential part of what St. Paul called the “armor of God” in his letter to the Ephesians. Prayers such as this novena and Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel can help us indeed “stand against the deceits of the devil" (Eph 6:11) by “taking the shield of faith” (Eph 6:16).

Remember, God permits us to be tempted by the devil but gives us the grace to resist him through prayer in our daily lives.

Let us not be afraid to ask for St. Michael’s help in this novena and others like it. We need to remember that each time we pray we work to defeat our real enemies, not each other, but rather Satan and all the demons.

As St. Paul put it, we fight “not against flesh and blood but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness” (Eph 6:12). With God’s help in prayer they can all be overcome.

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