Defend us in battle

June 30, 2010 by Amy Welborn

Also in the religious goods store in Saltillo. The St. Michael statue was huge and wonderful. Is it me, or does his headress have an Aztec-ian feel?

More substantive posts forthcoming. Re-entry is a challenge.

Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments

14 Responses

on July 1, 2010 at 12:06 am Ellie

It certainly looks Aztec-ian to me and magnificent. That must be quite a store.
on July 1, 2010 at 1:15 am Kristen

St Michael the Aztec, that works in a very strange way :).
on July 1, 2010 at 1:24 pm Jane

When I was a kid, St Michael had residence in our church entry. He was the first thing I’d see upon entering and the last at departure. What an impact! Someone who could take down the devil…

In the “old” days the St Michael prayer was said at the end of every Mass. Now, even after JPII asked the clergy to reinstate the prayer, it is still not said. I have to wonder where our country, as well as the world, would be today if we had continued to ask the greatest warrior to defend us from evil.
on July 1, 2010 at 2:31 pm Amy Welborn

Jane: there is definitely a resurgence of the St. Michael prayer. The hosting missionary group prayed it frequently, and I hear it far more often in various contexts than I did even five years ago.
on July 1, 2010 at 2:43 pm Jane

I am delighted to hear that Amy!
on July 1, 2010 at 3:26 pm bill bannon

Fascinating is that we are to be almost polite with demons and not to provoke Satan by deriding him and thus Michael too avoided being derisive wiith Satan though he fought in battle against him in another place (Revelations)…fighting and being derisive are different:

NAB translation: Jude 1:8
“Yet the archangel Michael, when he argued with the devil in a dispute over the body of Moses, did not venture to pronounce a reviling judgment 8 upon him but said, ‘May the Lord rebuke you!’”
on July 1, 2010 at 4:34 pm Jason

That is a magnificent statue…Our church community has a strong hispanic influence do to over half of our new parishioners are from somewhere in Latin America…This would be an awesome addition to our church…God bless you for sharing the picture, and I can’t wait to take a trip to Mexico so me and my family can find some treasure like you did and experience the culture that is so blatantly and beautifully Catholic!
on July 1, 2010 at 10:45 pm Lynn

I’m happy to say that I have heard the St. Michael prayer more frequently in the last few years, often in Rosary and pro-life groups.
on July 2, 2010 at 4:57 pm TotaTua

definitely aztecan headdress. What is the name of this store?
on July 2, 2010 at 8:26 pm Amy Welborn

I don’t know the name. It was very close to the cathedral. Maybe three blocks down, no more.

(In what direction, I cannot say…)
on July 3, 2010 at 11:29 am Dr. Bugenhagen

It doesn’t have the pathos of a lot of Mexican Catholic art which is good but I still wish I could have seen the devil getting stepped on. He’s kind of hidden by the other stuff.
on July 4, 2010 at 9:47 pm Manny

Hi Amy, it’s great to visit your blog.

Yes, the headress does have an Aztec-ian feel. Did you know the only church approved apparition of St. Michael in North America (1631) was in central Mexico, in Tlaxcala state?

There’s a page about it (in Spanish) here:
http://www.corazones.org/lugares/latino_a/mexico/san_miguel_mil/miguel_milagro.htm

and one in English here:
http://starharbor.com/santiago/milagro.html

Sorry, I’m not sure how to do hyperlinks.

The vocal group SAVAE performs a 16th century song that refers to St. Michael on one of their albums. You can hear a bit of it at this link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QN6XFW/ref=dm_mu_dp_trk8

It’s called “El Fiel Peso Y Medida” and here’s their translation:

“The true weight and measure: God gave it for us to live in him. In you, Michael, is the end by which to measure our life. It is a weight that only comes from God and resides in the high heavens. Heaven and earth bow to him, and that Michael rules over you. For that weight and measure which causes life and and death: in you, Michael, is the end by which to measure our life.”

Sorry for the bulky comment. I’ll comment on the previous posts when I get a chance.
on July 4, 2010 at 10:18 pm Manny

Sorry for commenting twice in a row, but the comments are closed on the posts below.

On the tp thing, yep. Especially if you’re traveling by bus down there, it’s a good idea to carry a roll of tp with you as the bus station restroom sometimes don’t have it.

On San Charbel Maklouf I can attest he is very popular. I have a relative who swears by him. I have a hunch he’ll get really popular up here too as the devotion spreads northwards.

On St. Michael, one of the coolest pictures I’ve ever seen I found in a photography book (of course I can’t remember the name of the book, it was either specifically about Mexican “lucha libre” or Mexican pop-culture in general) I came across in a bookstore one day. There was a picture of “Fray Tormenat”, the inspiration for the movie “Nacho Libre”. He was leading a procession into a church in dressed in full wrestling gear with cape, mask and everything, before a statue of St. Michael with sword and everything. It was a really striking photo (and for the liturgically sensitive, it didn’t look to me like he celebrating Mass or anything ).
on July 4, 2010 at 10:53 pm Amy Welborn

THANK YOU! So informative!