I bring to mankind, from God,
the Gift of Patience.
I counsel you to remember that
God is patient with you.
Be patient with others,
especially with your loved ones.
Be kind to one another!
I bring to mankind, from God, I counsel you to remember that Be patient with others, Be kind to one another! |
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And now I beseech you not to pray to me,
for I am only a messenger of the Lord.
Pray only to God.
Love God with all your heart
and keep His commandments.
The Archangel Michael has been called the
Champion of God.
Michael fought with Satan for the body of
Moses.
He defeated the devil and buried the body of Moses
and carried his immortal soul to Heaven.
The Archangel Michael leads the souls of the
faithful
into the Eternal Light.
It was Michael who announced to Mary
her approaching death
and carried her soul, also, to Heaven.
The Archangel Michael fights Satan endlessly.
Information about the Archangel Michael taken from the pages
of:
Angels: An Endangered Species
by: Malcolm Godwin
The Archangel Michael
His name means "Who Is As God". In most Christian lore he is the "Greatest". In fact he and Gabriel are the only two actually mentioned in the Old Testament at all, save for Raphael who introduces himself in the Catholic Book of Tobit.
Originally, Michael was a Chaldean deity but since those ancient days his exploits have captured the popular imagination far more than any other angel. Many of his deeds are also attributed to the other Archangels. It is a measure of Michael’s popularity that this should occur.
In one account his is said to have wiped out, single-handed and overnight, a hundred and eighty-five thousand men from the army of the Assyrian king, Sennercherib, who was threatening Jerusalem in 701 B.C.. Michael is said to have stayed the hand of Abraham who was about to sacrifice his son Isaac. According to Jewish lore it is Michael who appeared to Moses in the midst of a burning bush and who appears again in the burial episode, where he disputes the possession of the body of the old patriarch with Satan. It is Michael who will descend from heaven with "the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand" and will bind the Satanic dragon for 1000 years (Revelation 20:1).
He assuredly remains the undisputed hero in the first war against Satan: in single combat he defeated the arch-fiend and hurled him down from heaven. Another, more popular version of this of course the one in which he subdues the dragon-Satan, although now St. George has monopoly on these great serpents.
Michael is usually shown with an unsheathed sword which signifies his role as God’s great champion. In a curious passage in Daniel, God speaks in a uncharacteristically humble fashion, admitting that He had been unavoidably delayed in keeping a promised appointment with the prophet. The reason He gives is that Cyrus, the Prince of Persia, had successfully resisted Him for twenty-one days. He tells Daniel "but Michael, one of the leading Princes, has come to my assistance." He confesses that "In all this there is no one to lend me support except Michael, your Prince, on whom I rely to give me support and re-inforce me." From this we can deduce that Michael was the guardian angel of Israel, but it also appears he is the only one who backed up the Throne when the chips were really down.
There are Muslim traditions which describe Michael in wondrous form. "Wings the color of green emerald....covered with saffron hairs, each of them containing a million faces and mouths and as many tongues which, in a million dialects, implore the pardon of Allah." In the Koran it is said that from the tears shed by this great angel over the sins of the faithful, cherubim are formed.
In earlier Persian legends Michael is identified with Beshter, "the one who provides sustenance for mankind." In one Dead Sea Scroll, ‘The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness’, Michael is named the "Prince of Light," who leads a host against the dark legions of Belial, Prince of Darkness. In this role Michael is Viceroy of Heaven which, oddly enough, was the title of the Prince of Darkness before the fall.
Michael is also known as the angel of the Last Judgment and, as the ‘weigher of souls," has a pedigree dating from when the tribes of Israel were in captivity in Egypt. There, the weigher of hearts of the deceased was Anubis. This Dog, or jackal-headed deity was identified with the most important star in the Egyptian sky, Sirius, the dog star. In Persia the star is known as Tistar, the "Chief," and the earlier Akkadian term was Kasista, which denotes a Prince or leader. Add a pinch of Hebrew (sar-is commander or Prince) and we come very close to the "Prince and Commander of the Stars(angels) who is Michael." His peacock decorated wings recall the eye of the Egyptian Goddess, Maat, whose feather was weighed against a mortal’s heart which lay in the balance of Anubis.
In the Middle Ages Michael was also held to be the "Psychopomp," the conductor of souls to the other world. As the Church was anxious to attract the old pagan worshipers of Roman Gaul, who remained faithful to the God Mercury, they endowed Michael with many of the attributes of that world God. Chapels dedicated to Michael spring up over the ruins of the earlier temples which invariably had been built on hills or mounds. Thus Michael became, like Mercury, the guide for the dead. The many "Michael’s Mounts" to be found throughout Europe and Britain attest to the power of that ancient archetype - the mound of the dead. Many of the sites were, in more ancient times, the focal points of Earth Forces known as Dragon Power so it is hardly a coincidence that Michael’s fame should be connected with the destroying Dragon. Yet another curious link is to be found with the God-magician, Hermes, who in many cases is interchangeable with Mercury. The Greeks also called Hermes the Psychopomp, and his phallic spirit in the form of standing stones protected crossroads throughout the Greco-Roman world. While the Church banished all the earlier pagan deities to hell, in the case of Micha-el the various powers of all these Gods were absorbed within the Archangel’s attributes.
It is foretold in Daniel that when the world is once again in real trouble Micha-el will reappear. Many scholars point to this century as being the one in which he will reveal himself once more in all his glory.