Question on the St. Michael the Archangel prayer

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I was reciting the prayer today, when I realized that it seemed as if I was praying to, instead of asking him to pray for me, unlike the Hail Mary prayer. Why is this not idolatry?
 
To “pray” to does not mean to worship or idolize. It originally meant to ask earnestly or to beg. For example, the expression you don’t hear any longer, pray tell, would not be idolatry. But when, pray tell, did you intend on cleaning your room?
 
Because you’re asking him to do what God has specifically tasked him to do, which is fight the devil “by the power of God”.

St. Michael is not a human saint, he is an angel of God. Angels have specific tasks assigned them by God, thus they are carrying out God’s will. You don’t ask Michael to do something else that God hasn’t tasked him with doing. It’s the same way you can ask your guardian angel to protect you. God gave the Guardian angel that job.
 
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That’s a good question! Looks like you got some good answers. I love when this forum helps me learn answers to questions I didn’t know I had.
 
someperson said:
I was reciting the prayer today, when I realized that it seemed as if I was praying to, instead of asking him to pray for me, unlike the Hail Mary prayer. Why is this not idolatry?
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To pray is to speak to or ask for their intercession on your behalf or on behalf of other ,to God .

Saint Michael the Archangel is an angel, and the leader of all angels and of the army of God. This is what the title ;Archangel; means, that he is above all the others in rank.

St. Michael has four main responsibilities or offices, as we know from scripture and Christian tradition.
  • The first is to combat Satan.
  • The second is to escort the faithful to heaven at their hour of death.
  • The third is to be a champion of all Christians, and the Church itself.
  • And the fourth is to call men from life on Earth to their heavenly judgment.
Jude 1:9 But when the archangel Michael contended with the devil and disputed about the body of Moses, he did not dare to bring a condemnation of slander
against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

Just like St Raphael,Tobit 12:12 So now when you and Sarah prayed, it was I who brought and read
the record of your prayer before the glory of the Lord, and likewise whenever you would bury the dead. 13 And that time when you did not hesitate to get up and leave your dinner to go and bury the dead, 14 I was sent to you to test you. And at the same time God sent me to heal you and Sarah your daughter-in-law. 15 I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand ready and enter before the glory of the Lord.”

First Sphere

Seraphim.

Cherubim.

Thrones.

Dominions or Lordships.

Virtues or Strongholds.

Powers or Authorities.

Principalities or Rulers.

Archangels.

https://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/ANGNAME.HTM

Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are the only angels to have come down through the ages with names and strongly defined images

Invisible beings of light, carrying out God’s will among mankind, angels cries-cross through the stories in Scripture. The Bible is filled with these mysterious, anonymous presences.

St. Gregory the Great said that "almost all the pages of the sacred books bear witness to the existence of angels and archangels." They are so numerous that God is known as "Lord of hosts."

Yet just three have come down through the ages with names and with strongly defined images, assumed through their roles in carrying out God’s mandates.

Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael—all of their names ending in "el," a Semitic name of God—are accorded a special liturgical feast day, celebrated on Sept. 29 each year.

Michael, the fearless warrior, Gabriel, the angel of the Incarnation, and Raphael, known as the angel of prayer, were joined together liturgically just 25 years ago from their separate feasts and given the date, which for centuries had honored Michael alone.

Venerated since ancient times, Michael is known in the Old Testament as the ;Guardian
 
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It’s easy to get tied up in knots about prayer to Angels/ Saints. When I was Protestant, I viewed prayer as worship because that’s what Protestant worship really is. A prayer of sorts to God through direct prayer and hymns. The explanation of “we don’t pray TO saints, we ASK for their prayers” doesn’t hold up to Protestant scrutiny and plays along with their definition of prayer.
You do pray to Saint Michael, asking his intercession as better explained by others here.
As a convert, it helped me when praying such prayers to focus on the words “by the power of God” or “may God grant”, etc, to get over that hangup. Because God is King, and His heavenly servants go about the tasks assigned to them for His glory and by His power. Asking a Kings Knight to protect me along the road is not to make that Knight the King himself.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Because you’re asking him to do what God has specifically tasked him to do, which is fight the devil “by the power of God”.
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If St. Michael is under orders from God to combat the devil, then why do we have to pray to him to try to convince him to do what God has already ordered him to do?

D
 
You’re not convincing him. You’re asking him for help, which basically means you’re asking God for help.

Let’s say you’re on the battlefield with your unit and all of a sudden your unit comes under heavy attack from a larger enemy force. Does your unit leader try to contact someone for help or does he just skip that because the other units are tasked with fighting the enemy anyway?

And for that matter, why do we bother asking God for help when he knows what we need before we even ask? Why doesn’t he just send the help?

Answer: Because God likes us to ask. And since Archangel Michael is God’s special agent in charge of fighting the Devil, God is fine with us asking him via asking Michael. Someone else made the point about the -el suffix already.
 
There’s this false idea among some Catholics that we can’t directly ask the saints for something. We can. Saints aren’t limited to praying for us. Sometimes God allows them to bestow grace on people.
 
When we pray to a saint in that capacity, the prayer usually comains some reference to God allowing them to do that so it’s clear the grace doesn’t come from them but from God. Just like the St Michael Prayer says “by the power of God”.
 
But the grace can be distributed by the saint at his or her discretion. The diary of St Faustina records these words of Our Lord to Faustina:

“Do whatever you wish, distribute graces as you will, to whom you will and when you will.” Source: Paragragh 31.

Since the diary has been approved by the Church, we can be confident that it contains no doctrinal errors. Therefore, the saints can directly distribute graces at their discretion.
 
I wouldn’t go that far as to say saints other than the Virgin Mary, Dispenser of All Graces, can just hand out grace at their discretion. If Jesus specifically tells them they can, fine. Many other saints did not do this on earth and did not see their role on earth as doing this.
 
"O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God**, ndicates that we are asking for Gods intercession. Through St. Michael.

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
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