In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Today, the Church calls us to honor and reflect upon these three great archangels: St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael. Of the nine choirs of angels, these are the only angels that God has revealed through revelation, the names of these angels. The other angels' names, are not revealed to us. But God has given each angel a name.
In fact, St. Thomas Aquinas writes extensively about the choirs of angels, and he says each angel is distinct and different from another. It's like each angel is its own species in the sense of they have similarities of the angelic nature, but they are each distinct and different. But the three archangels that we honor today are revealed to us through, of course, sacred scripture and sacred tradition.
St. Michael's name means 'who is like to God' or 'who is like God,' and he is considered to be the prince of the angels and, of course, is renowned for his assistance against the forces of evil, the forces of darkness, being called upon to defend us from evil and protect us from Satan's power and influence. St. Michael is a very powerful, important angel to have devotion to.
St. Francis of Assisi is renowned for his devotion to St. Michael. He would even have a fast of 40 days in preparation for the Feast of St. Michael, beginning on the day or after the day of the Assumption of Our Lady. He would fast for 40 days, and it was during one of these fasts that he received the holy stigmata as he was preparing for the Feast of St. Michael.
And also, he visited the Shrine of St. Michael, the famous shrine in Italy where St. Michael appeared several times, in Monte Gargano, Monte Angelo, the Shrine of St. Michael. The shrine is within a cave, and this ancient shrine is, the church is in the cave, and you descend an ancient staircase to go into the cave, which is the church where the archangel appeared several times, even to the bishop of the time.
And this is a very holy, sacred place, and St. Francis of Assisi went there on pilgrimage, and when he came to the entrance to the cave, which is the church, he would not enter. He said, 'I am unworthy to enter here.' So holy is this place, and he traced his famous signature, the Tao, the cross on the wall, on the wall, and there's a replica of it, of that on the wall.
And Padre Pio, St. Padre Pio, who, where he lived in San Giovanni Rotondo, was only a half hour away by car from St. Michael's cave, St. Michael's shrine, he would always tell people, 'If you come to visit me, you must also go to visit St. Michael.' And so this shrine is very famous in devotion to St. Michael, but above all, it reminds us that we are not alone in our battles, we are not alone in our temptations, and that St. Michael is powerful to assist us and to help us to turn away from Satan's deceptions and to remain faithful to God.
During my novitiate in Italy, we once visited an exorcist. We visited the exorcist of the city of Naples, and he showed us two things during our visit about his work as exorcist. He first showed us a rosary that he put around a possessed person's neck, and when he put the rosary around the possessed person's neck, the person began to scream or the devil began to yell, 'It's burning me, it's burning me, take it off.' And the rosary had been burned, physically burned by flames.
And the other thing he showed us was his book that he used for his exorcism, that when he went in to do this exorcism, a holy card flew out of the book by itself. And he picked up the holy card, it was the card of St. Michael, the archangel, and he stressed with us, the devil is fearful and hates St. Michael. But then he opened the book and showed us the book and burned through the pages of the book where the card had been was the shape of a claw. You could see clearly a claw had gone through that book and it had burned through the pages, pages of the book. You could clearly see the shape of a claw having gone through those pages. But it's just again reminding us how important St. Michael is in our daily devotion.
Traditionally, we know that the prayer of St. Michael was composed by Pope Leo XIII after he had a vision, which he saw St. Michael, he saw Satan trying to destroy the Church, to destroy the Church and cause havoc in the world. And he composed that famous prayer to St. Michael in response to that, that we turn to St. Michael to ask his intercession to protect the Church and the world from Satan's influence and power. And so it's a wonderful devotion to pray to this archangel when we're being tempted, but also just in our day-to-day life to help us to keep ourselves from the influence of the evil one and to be faithful to Jesus Christ.
St. Gabriel, his name means 'God's strength,' 'God's strength.' And of course, St. Gabriel was entrusted by God with the most important message to a human being, going to our Blessed Mother with that most important message at the Annunciation that she had been, that she was called to be the Mother of God, the Mother of the Savior, greeting her with the words, 'Ave Maria, hail, full of grace. Hail Mary, full of grace.' And so Gabriel brought that most important message to our Blessed Mother on behalf of Almighty God, that message which would bring us salvation and redemption and bring us God's divine life through His son Jesus Christ.
Also having that same archangel having gone to the parents of St. John the Baptist to Zechariah with the message that he too was to, his wife was to have a son. And so Gabriel is God's messenger in a special way, meaning 'God's strength.' And we can ask St. Gabriel to intercede for us also in our communications. He's a powerful angel to help us in communicating with others.
And I've heard many people's, or I've heard stories of people when having trouble with communicating to someone, either through the phone or through the internet, through some technical problems, they asked St. Gabriel's intercession and their message was delivered. They were able to, whatever it was causing the problem was corrected and St. Gabriel helped them in delivering their message.
And St. Raphael, his name means 'God heals.' And he is one, of course, in the book of Tobias. He is the one that brings healing, brings healing. And he's also a patron of happy meetings, happy meetings. And St. Raphael is a powerful angel to help us in many ways. And we can ask his assistance above all to keep our soul healthy and in the grace of God, but also to ask his intercession when we are not well.
I have many times when I was in overseas or in missions and did not have the ability to have a doctor at the time, I asked St. Raphael's intercession and experienced powerfully his assistance in overcoming illness and overcoming ailments. And he's a powerful angel to help us as well to keep on that path of loving and following Jesus Christ.
And so the angels we rejoice today in knowing that these holy angels who are God's servants and messengers are at our side to assist us. As the gospel so beautifully pointed out, they ascend and descend. They ascend to the throne of God to praise and worship and give glory to God. They descend at God's command to assist us and help us on our path to heaven and that we have the help of these mighty angels to assist us above all in loving and serving Jesus Christ and in following and carrying out God's plan and will for us in our own life.
May the holy angels assist us today and we may frequently turn to them and ask their help so that we may join them one day in the choir, in God's, in the heavenly choir and to eternally give praise and glory to God.  In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.