Just a quick reminder, this Sunday is Michaelmas when we recall the presence of the archangel Michael in our lives. Michael is a presence we invoke in every Eucharist service “Lord of Fire and Prince of the Legions of Heaven”.
If talk of angels makes you squirmy, you might prefer to reflect on times in your own journey when you’ve noticed flashes of what you might call “fierce wisdom” – perhaps you’ve become terminally impatient with unfortunate habits, or with an inability to be disciplined, you may have experienced frustration at how little you know. Sometimes this kind of mental energy is turned outwards – fury at inane television or puerile pop music, frustration at habits in social groups or in society itself that seem to limit you, or that keep us all separate.
As gentle-hearted mystic folk, of course, we may imagine that we will never get angry (an illusion that some of us manage to sustain for years), but I think anger sometimes has a bad rap. If we reframe some of this anger as “fierceness” and note whether there is wisdom in our fierce reactions or whether we are simply reacting, I think we can develop a more refined understanding of Michael’s gifts.
St Michael represents, on one level, our spiritual capacity for fierce wisdom, our mental ability of discriminating intelligence and our emotional capacity for tough love.
So whether you are at church on Sunday or not, offer thanks for St Michael’s continuing presence in your life and take some time to marvel at his positive influence.