Do We Ask Our Powerful Friends for Help?

What part do angels play in your spiritual life? It would be very sad if the answer is very little.

They have a function in Heaven as the servants of God and on Earth they can be the friends of every man and woman. The opening Prayer of the Mass today briefly summarises their function: “May those who serve you constantly in Heaven keep our lives safe from all harm on Earth.”

We only know the names of four of the archangels: the three whose feast we keep today and Lucifer, which means the bearer of light, who rebelled against God and is now called Satan.

We should train ourselves to keep these three archangels constantly before our minds. Michael's name means 'who is like God' for he is the one who led the victorious battle and drove Satan and his retinue into Hell. Whenever we are tempted by Satan we can ask Michael to help us to win our own personal struggle against evil.

Since Gabriel's name means 'strength of God' we can ask Gabriel to help us in our weakness. Who of us is not weak? We can rejoice with Gabriel and thank him for being the one to announce to our Blessed Lady the tremendous news of the Incarnation when he revealed for the first time, to Mary and to us, the mystery of the Blessed Trinity.

Finally, the name Raphael means 'the healing of God.' Who of us does not need spiritual healing from the wounds of sins we have committed and physical healing from ailments like headaches, toothaches, tummy disorders, arthritic and rheumatic pains, skin irritation and the like? The list is endless! But we can take these ailments to Raphael and ask for healing.

Every morning we can bring these archangels into our lives by saying prayers to them.

'Michael, help me to be like Jesus and may Satan have no part in my life.'

'Gabriel, strengthen me in my weakness.'

'Raphael, I place my health in your hands. Heal my life of past wounds.'

Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael ... pray for us and protect us.