September 29 is the feast day of St. Michael the Archangel. The name "Michael" is actually a Hebrew statement meaning: "Who is like God!" It was St. Michael's challenge to the pretension of Lucifer (his fellow archangel, according to St. Thomas Aquinas), who claimed he was "as the Most High." In a titanic battle of angelic wills, St. Michael overcame Lucifer and cast him out. To this day, St. Michael's name is invoked as a challenge to that proud spirit, Lucifer, who has become Satan to us. Brooding with resentment and burning with hatred, Lucifer cannot attack God directly, of course, but he attacks the image of God in us by our human nature and the likeness of God in us by grace. He succeeded in luring mankind away from God in the persons of Adam and Eve. Christ restores us to God by His sacrifice on Calvary, perpetuated in the Mass. The battle now takes place in the human will.

In the 1970's, Paul VI suppressed the prayers after Mass, including the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, and removed the prayers of exorcism from the baptismal ceremony. He later apologized for this tragic mistake – but never corrected it. Traditional Catholics should know the prayer to St. Michael by memory, and pray it often.