Lynne Baab

Praying about the flow of time: The Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels

Lynne Baab • Wednesday September 25 2024

Michaelmas daisies bloom in the fall and come in various shades of purple, pink, and white. I first heard about Michaelmas daisies in a novel set in England that I read as a young adult. At that time, I thought “Michaelmas” was an odd name for a fall-blooming daisy. I had no idea Michaelmas is a day in the church calendar, originally celebrating the archangel Michael. Later, two other archangels, Gabriel and Raphael, were added to the day.

Michaelmas is observed in Western Christianity on September 29 and on November 8 for Christians in the Eastern traditions. The suffix “mas” comes from the medieval word for “mass,” like Christmas, marking days when mass would be celebrated in honor of someone holy. Other names for Michaelmas are the Feast of the Archangels or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels.

We know very little about the three archangels celebrated at Michaelmas. Much of what Christians have believed about Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael comes from literature outside the Bible.

The archangel Michael first appears in Jewish works several centuries before Jesus. Christianity kept most of the Jewish traditions related to Michael. In the Bible, Michael appears briefly in Daniel 12:1, where he is described as “the great prince, the protector of your people.” Revelation 12:7-12 describes Michael winning a battle with Satan. Similarly, Jude 1:9 describes a battle between “the archangel Michael” and Satan. “Michael” means “who is like God,” which can be a statement or a question.

All three of these angels have names that end in “el,” Hebrew for God. Gabriel means “God is my strength.” Gabriel appears to Daniel (Daniel 8:15-26, 9:21-27) to help Daniel interpret his dreams. Gabriel appears to Zechariah (Luke 1:8-20) and Mary (Luke 1:26-38) to announce the births of their sons, John the Baptist and Jesus. All of the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Islam, and the Bahai faith, in addition to Christianity) honor Gabriel as the angel who can communicate God’s will to humanity. In Judaism, Gabriel is viewed as the guardian angel of Israel.

Raphael means “God has healed.” Raphael does not appear in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. He is first mentioned in the Apocryphal books of Tobit and First Enoch, which date from two to three centuries before Christ. Later, Jewish writers identified Raphael as one of the heavenly visitors who came to Abraham at the Oaks or Mamre (Genesis 18:1-3). Later Christian tradition viewed Raphael as the angel who stirred the waters in Jesus’s healing at the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:2-9).

We learn about these angels from their actions and words. We have no physical description. My favorite picture of an angel comes from a painting of the Annunciation by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1959-1937). Twenty years ago, Dave and I visited a museum that was hosting a special exhibition of Tanner's work. We learned he was the first African American artist to gain international acclaim. He painted many Christian themes. That day in the art museum, I kept returning to his painting of the Annunciation, which you can see here. He pictures the angel Gabriel as a column of light, which resonates with me more than paintings of angels with long robes and feathery wings. In Tanner's painting of the Annunciation, I also love the expression on Mary's face. 

The other description of angels that has spoken to me comes from a poem by Luci Shaw entitled “Angel Vision.” Here are several excerpts from her long, beautiful poem:

Clean as steel wires, shining
as frost, making holiness beautiful, aiming
at the Will of God like arrows flaming
to a target, early solidity presents no
barrier to their going. . . .
In habiting the purposes of God, Who is
the Lord of all their Hosts, in Deep Space
their congregation wages war with swords of fire
& power & great joy, seizing from the
Hierarchies of Darkness Andromeda’s boundaries
& all constellations. The rising Day Star
is their standard bearer, as on earth they stay
the Adversary’s slaughter of the [children] of God.
Praise
is their delight also. Rank on rank they sing
circularly around the Throne, dancing together
in a glory, clapping hands at all rebellion
repented of, or sheep returned. . . .
how can we think to escape their fiery ministry? We listen
for their feathers, miss the shaft of light
at our shoulder. [1]

Luci Shaw’s poem summarizes the themes of the passages in the Bible where angels are so briefly mentioned. Angels, including Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, make holiness beautiful, see and follow the will of God clearly, wage war against our ancient Adversary, praise God continually, and minister to us without our ability to see them. We can rejoice with the angels “at all rebellion repented of, or sheep returned.” We can also rejoice that God works through angels in ways we seldom see or understand. The ministry of angels is a source of humility for us. As much as we’d love to see them at work, we can only trust they are there, staying “the Adversary’s slaughter” of us and those we love.

Lord of hosts, we praise you for the hosts of angels who do your will. We praise you for the times an angel has brought us back from the brink, physically or spiritually, in ways we cannot see or grasp. As the end of September approaches, and Christians around the world celebrate Michaelmas, the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels,we join in the humility and mystery of something we cannot understand. We can only rest in your power and goodness.

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Next week: the first of three posts on the Jewish high holidays, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Illustration by Dave Baab.

Previous posts about humility:

• Humility and listening
• Humility and listening, part 2
• G. K. Chesterton on doing things badly

[1] Luci Shaw, “Angel Vision,” The Secret Trees: Poems  (Wheaton IL: Harold Shaw, 1976), 77.

Lynne M. Baab, Ph.D., is an author and adjunct professor. She has written numerous books, Bible study guides, and articles for magazines and journals. Lynne is passionate about prayer and other ways to draw near to God, and her writing conveys encouragement for readers to be their authentic selves before God. She encourages experimentation and lightness in Christians spiritual practices. Read more »

Lynne is pleased to announce the release of her two 2024 books, both of them illustrated with her talented husband Dave's watercolors. She is thrilled at how good the watercolors look in the printed books, and in the kindle versions, if read on a phone, the watercolors glow. Friendship, Listening and Empathy: A Prayer Guide guides the reader into new ways to pray about the topics in the title. Draw Near: A Lenten Devotional guides the reader to a psalm for each day of Lent and offers insightful reflection/discussion questions that can be used alone or in groups. 

Another recent book is Two Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian  Life, available in paperback, audiobook, and for kindle. Lynne's 2018 book is Nurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care for the Twenty-First Century, and her most popular book is Sabbath-Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest (now available as an audiobook as well as paperback and kindle). You can see her many other book titles here, along with her Bible study guides.

You can listen to Lynne talk about these topics: empathy, bringing spiritual practices to life. Sabbath keeping for recent grads., and Sabbath keeping for families and children.

Lynne was interviewed for the podcast "As the Crow Flies". The first episode focuses on why listening matters and the second one on listening skills. 

Here are two talks Lynne gave on listening (recorded in audio form on YouTube): Listening for Mission and Ministry and Why Listening Matters for Mission and Ministry.

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"Dear Dr. Baab, You changed my life. It is only through God’s gift of the sabbath that I feel in my heart and soul that God loves me apart from anything I do."
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