The Leonine Prayers after Mass (Part 3: Conclusion)

Leo XIII's vision and the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel

The revival of interest in and devotion to the classic Roman Rite or Tridentine Mass — a revival that would certainly not have been predicted in the heyday of the liturgical reform — has revived the custom of praying the Leonine Prayers at the end of Mass, which sometimes spills over into the world of the Novus Ordo. The escalating relevance of these prayers, particularly the one to St. Michael the Archangel, at a time when the world stands in more obvious need than ever of heavenly intervention against diabolic incursions, can be denied only by those who no longer believe in the devil at all (like the superior general of the Jesuits) or those whose hatred for all things traditional is the strongest animating principle of their lives (people whom we call ideologues, such as the author of Traditionis Custodes).¹

In part 1 and part 2, we offered a theological and devotional commentary on the set of prayers recited after Low Mass. Today, in the final part, I will look more closely at the figure of St. Michael, the vision of Leo XIII, and the intentions for which we pray these prayers.

Blake, “The Angel Michael Binding Satan” (source)

St. Michael the Archangel

Given the remarkable circumstances of its composition and the fact that prayer to angels is not as familiar to Catholics today as it used to be, we should circle back to the St. Michael prayer, which has often been reintegrated into parish life in recent years. Why is this prayer to St. Michael especially appropriate for our times?

Let’s begin with what we know about the angel named Michael — whose name means “Who is like unto GOD”? The Book of Daniel mentions him several times as “one of the chief princes” (Dan. 10:13) and as the special protector of Israel who will rise up as “the great prince” (Dan. 12:1). St. Michael’s central role in the confrontation between good and evil at the end of history is explicitly mentioned in the same book.

Some Christian theologians (e.g., St. Gregory Nazianzen) believed that Michael was the angel who spoke to Moses on God’s behalf from the burning bush and upon Mt. Sinai, and that he is the angel who guards the closed gates of Eden and had charge of the plagues visited upon the Egyptians. The Epistle of St. Jude expressly mentions Michael as having contended with the devil over the body of Moses (Jude 9). The Book of Revelation or Apocalypse of St. John gives the most explicit testimony of all: “There was a great battle in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels; and they did not prevail, neither was their place found any more in heaven” (Rev. 12:7–8). The scriptural account goes on to reveal that it is Michael who thrusts the devil and his slaves into the abyss and chains them there (Rev. 20).

Thus, Michael is connected with the people of Israel and their conversion; with the end times; with the battle against the ancient Serpent; with the giving of the commandments of God; with the plagues to be unleashed against God’s enemies. All of these themes share a common property: namely, that they have been ignored or rejected by churchmen after Vatican II, who deny the mission to the Jews, who reject the urgency of conversion from false religions, who minimize or even scoff at belief in demons and the use of exorcisms; who openly contradict the divine and natural law, especially in regard to sins against the sixth and ninth commandments; who call into doubt whether the Church can have enemies against whom she must fight, with God’s help — going so far as to omit systematically the imprecatory verses of the psalms from the modern “liturgy of the hours.”

Michael’s apparitions in the history of Christendom outnumber those of any other angel. He is believed to have appeared, among other places, at Chonae and Sosthenion, at Monte Gargano in Italy and Mont Saint Michel off the coast of Normandy. He visited St. Wilfrid, St. Bertrand, St. Hubert, St. Francis of Paola, and St. Joan of Arc, and is believed by some to be the angel who appeared to St. Francis of Assisi at the time of his stigmatization. Tradition holds St. Michael to be captain of the angels who are sent by God into the world to work for the salvation of human beings; this would mean, among other things, that he is prince of all guardian angels. Popular piety assigns to him also the role of healer (along with St. Raphael), the task of writing deeds in the Book of Life, of weighing souls in the scales of divine justice, of conducting just souls into heaven, and of casting evil souls into hell.

Detail from Rogier van der Weyden’s Last Judgment (source)

The vision of Leo XIII

But how did we end up with this particular prayer, prescribed to be said after every low Mass?

The familiar story tells us that one day in 1884, Pope Leo XIII, having just finished celebrating Mass, was walking away from the tabernacle when he suddenly collapsed. The Cardinals who were present rushed up to him and took his pulse, for they feared he was dead. Some moments later the Pope regained consciousness, and then related what he had experienced. In front of the tabernacle, he had heard a confrontation between Jesus and Satan. Satan was boasting that if he had enough time and enough power, he could destroy the Church. Jesus asked him: “How much time, and how much power?” Satan replied that he would need but a century and greater influence over men who would give themselves to him. Jesus said: “So be it.” The twentieth century is the century that was given to Satan to do his best to destroy the Church.

Apparently, Leo was then permitted a horrible vision of the attacks that would be waged by evil spirits against souls and the Church, as well as a consoling vision of the Archangel Michael thrusting Satan and his legions back down into the abyss of hell. The Pope was greatly distressed after what he had experienced, and having spoken of it to those around him, went immediately to his room to compose a prayer of exorcism against the devil. It is a shortened version of this exorcism that has become familiar to us as the prayer Pope Leo XIII himself prescribed in the same year for recitation, along with the Marian prayers, after every low Mass throughout the Latin-rite Church.

There are some who question the authenticity of this story, but no amount of skepticism or revisionism can adequately account for the stubborn fact that something prompted Leo XIII to take the unprecedented step of composing long and short prayers of exorcism and of requiring the entire Catholic Church to pray to St. Michael against Satan. This is just not the sort of thing that a pope decides one fine day to do for no very good reason except that it’s a “neat idea.” (That kind of wilfulness had to wait until the liturgical reform under Paul VI, which took place well within Satan’s century of influence.)

Incidentally, though we could take Satan’s mention of “a century” as a rough figure and not necessarily exactly 100 years, it’s worth pointing out that something of tremendous importance in rebuffing Satan’s quest for domination in the Church did in fact occur exactly one hundred years after the vision of Leo XIII in 1884. I refer to the publication of the 1984 letter Quattuor Abhinc Annos, which, for the first time since the Council, opened up the possibility of a return of the traditional Latin Mass worldwide. It was, in my opinion, the beginning of the end of the liturgists’ reign of terror. And while we’re still very much suffering from the spiritual terrorism of the Vatican II flower children, their ideology convinces no one and their grip is only as tight as their lifespan.

The importance of St. Michael in this battle for souls — for the very soul of the Church — can hardly be exaggerated. Although we know that the Church of Christ herself cannot fail, many individual souls have been and will be lost in the fierce spiritual battles of the last century and of the present one. We do not know exactly what Jesus allowed to Satan; all that we know is that “your enemy the devil goes about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). This is what Scripture tells us, and we are fools if we do not invoke heavenly aid against the evil spirits.

Let us take up this prayer of Leo XIII and say it every day, “against the wickedness and snares of the devil.” The more we pray God to rebuke him, the more he will be rebuked. St. Michael is granted power over Satan in proportion to the desires of the people of God for the devil’s defeat. If we are lukewarm, Michael’s hand is to some extent bound. If we are on fire against the evil one and his servants, Michael’s hand is strengthened to wage war, and his servants are better positioned to assist us. Faith is our own weapon; let us use it, and then the angels, for their part, can use their weapons to the fullest.

We must not underestimate our role in the battle against the demons. The prayer of Leo XIII in and of itself indicates how great a role we play as intercessors before the throne of God. A prayer devoutly raised to God asking for St. Michael’s intervention against the wickedness and snares of the devil may mean the difference between a soul being entangled and lost, and a soul being set free and saved. When we think about how the devil pursues priests and religious above all, it should make us realize how fitting it is to pray this prayer right after Mass — praying not only for the faithful in general but, in particular, for the priest who offered that Mass. If according to the Apocalypse of St. John the dragon, the ancient serpent, is in pursuit of the Child and the Woman, will he not be in ceaseless pursuit of every priest and religious who, in their own consecrated states, are the icons, the symbols, representing in the world this Woman and her Child?

Fabio Cipolla, Portrait of Leo XIII (source)

Developing intentions

Originally, Pius IX prescribed prayers after Mass in the Papal States, for the preservation thereof. The States were violently seized in 1870. Leo XIII asked that the prayers be said worldwide for a resolution of the crisis concerning the temporal sovereignty of the Pope. After the Lateran Treaty of 1929, Pope Pius XI asked that they be prayed especially for the conversion of Russia and for the Church in Russia.

Pius XI’s request should not be seen as outdated, no longer relevant. It is quite true that the Soviet Union exists no longer and the Iron Curtain has fallen. In that sense, the countless prayers of our grandmothers and grandfathers after Low Mass can be seen to have borne tremendous fruit. On the other hand, those who know about the situation in the former Soviet Union and its quondam sphere of influence are aware that it suffers from many evil after-effects of Communism; and more to the point, the errors of Russia have, as Our Lady of Fatima predicted, spread themselves throughout the world. China offers the most notorious contemporary example of a militantly atheistic anti-Catholic Communist regime — it is shameful but hardly surprising that the Vatican in its Babylonian captivity has entered into an agreement with it that puts Chinese Catholics and their bishops at the mercy of their antagonists — but there is practically no university or government in the Western world that is free from Marxist ideological contamination. Pius XI’s intention surely encompasses the whole former Communist or Soviet bloc of nations, the Church of Eastern Europe, and the parts of the world that are still plagued by the evils of Communism, overt or subtle.²

That being said, the shock to the Church’s system of the attempted banishment of this set of prayers in 1964 and their reappearance often after many decades of desuetude makes it surely appropriate to have further private intentions in mind as we say them. Quite apart from the fact that the content of the prayers, as we have seen, admirably expresses all the fundamental intentions of the Christian spiritual life, one might offer them for the restoration of Tradition in the Church, for the protection of all who adhere to it, and for the defeat of its enemies. If we endeavor to say these prayers with our whole heart, we will be asking for all that is essential — for ourselves, for those we love, for sinners, for our enemies, for the Church on earth, for the entire human race.

Photo by Josh Applegate (source)

From a set of prayers to the spirit of prayer

It would be fair to say that the traditional Latin Mass’s increasing prominence has elevated awareness of the fittingness of the Leonine Prayers as a public act of thanksgiving and petition after the great and august mysteries of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass have been enacted upon the altar and their fruits received in Holy Communion. Among other benefits, the custom is a helpful check on the all-too-frequent tendency to rush out of Mass immediately after the final blessing.

The Leonine Prayers themselves will not automatically turn us into men and women of prayer, for prayer is an expression of inner spiritual desire that must be cultivated in order to germinate, grow strong, and bear fruit. Nevertheless, they can remove obstacles and induce in us the right dispositions to further prayer by forming in us a habit of lingering after Mass in the sight of God. If we consider the purpose of the Mass, we can see that it does not “end” with the postcommunion prayer, blessing, and Last Gospel. Only the offering of Mass ends. The offering of self to God, which is both symbolized and enacted in the mysteries of the Mass, is meant to continue at all times.

It could be said without much exaggeration that the “success” of a liturgy can be measured by the number of the faithful who remain in prayer after Mass. If the whole Church is filled with praying men, women, and children, then the liturgy has been successful. If there is hardly anyone left half a minute after the final blessing, the Mass is probably not reaching into people’s souls and affecting them in a significant way. (I recognize that parents with tiny children, or people with unavoidable scheduling conflicts, sometimes have to leave immediately after Mass. The point here is how do people behave when they have nothing compelling them to leave the church.) Having some formal prayers to recite immediately after Mass is a good way of helping everyone to slow down, take a deep breath, and linger in the Presence of the Lord.

Thank you, Popes Pius IX, Leo XIII, Pius X, and Pius XI, for your roles in mandating and directing these well-beloved prayers. May our intentional repetition of them be a small but meaningful sign of our determination to remain faithful to the good we have received and to make it ever more fruitful.

After the Leonine Prayers: Down for the count!

Appendix: Customs

I thought it might be worth noting that many people beat their breast three times at the phrase “O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.” This, I think, is a fine custom and well worth retaining.

On the other hand, I’ve been places where, after the Leonine Prayers are said, the simple Salve Regina is intoned for everyone to sing. This makes no sense, as just a minute before we all recited the Salve Regina together. If there is a desire to sing, I would suggest either the seasonal Marian antiphon, or, in the part of the year when the Salve Regina is itself the appointed antiphon, a different Marian hymn such as “Sub tuum praesidium.”

On relatively rare occasions, one hears a priest add further invocations after the final invocation of the Sacred Heart. Usually, it is “Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us,” and/or an invocation of the saint of the day or the patron saint of the parish. I am of two minds about this. On the one hand, surely there’s nothing wrong with invoking more saints in itself. On the other hand, this could seem like a touch of the freewheeling “in these or other words” spirit that we are trying to get away from, at a time when spontaneity has nearly wrecked rituality. I think if we are going to add invocations, at some point a superior either at the Vatican — but let’s not inquire at the moment — or of a priestly institute or religious order should give the command to add such invocations, for then they would be done like all the rest of the prayers, every time and in every place (or at least every place of which that community is in charge).

Thanks for reading and may God bless you!

1. At the end of August 2021, Cardinal Blaise Cupich, in the news recently with his none-too-kind appraisal of those Catholics who throw themselves on the ground to make a spectacle of their devotion (!), ordered a priest of the Chicago archdiocese to cease and desist the recitation of devotional prayers after Mass, including the prayer to St. Michael. Reports vary about what exactly happened, but this much is clear: the prayers were being said; the priest was told to stop doing so; and the “clarification” issued subsequently by the pastor sounds like an attempt to diffuse unwanted attention with the excuse that people have a right to decide their own private devotions. That’s true, as far as it goes; but one minute of prayer together after Mass is no grave imposition on anyone. In many places, an entire rosary is said before Mass. Of such prelates and their preoccupations, one may truly say: “Let the dead bury the dead.”

2. See “Putin’s regime is a mutation of Soviet communism”: An Interview with Dmitriy Savvin at The European Conservative.