Wording in prayer to st. michael the archangel

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on_the_hill

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Does the wording of this prayer irritate you a little? It does me. It starts out with

St. Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.

which is fine. But then,

May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,

which seems like it could possibly be interpreted as a request to rebuke St. Michael. Then goes to

and do thou,
O Prince of the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan,
and all the evil spirits,
who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen…

which shifts attention from Michael to the Prince of the heavenly hosts. Is this a request of Jesus or Michael? I always would’ve thought Jesus was the Prince of the heavenly hosts. He’s the prince of peace, after all. Or is Michael the Archangel the Price of the heavenly hosts and no one ever told me?

I’m sure over the centuries someone somewhere would’ve noticed anything wrong with the prayer, and I’m just completely wrong about it. But it irks me nonetheless.
 
Not at all. The devil was the subject mentioned immediately before that phrase, not St. Michael.
 
As Mtatum1958 said. Also as to the Prince of the Heavenly Host, the Apocalypse of John states (Rev 12:7) "And war broke out in heaven; Micheal and his angels fought with the dragon;… " Micheal is considered the commander of the heavenly host and in the days of the disciples, it was common for the commander of a kingdoms army to be the prince.

Patrick
AMDG
 
The prince of the host of the Lord is St. Michael. For example, that is how he is described in Joshua (Josue) 5:
Josue 5:[13] And when Josue was in the field of the city of Jericho, he lifted up his eyes, and saw a man standing over against him: holding a drawn sword, and he went to him, and said: Art thou one of ours, or of our adversaries? [14] And he answered: No: but I am prince of the host of the Lord, and now I am come.
Click to expand...
 
The prayer asks God to rebuke Satan just as St Jude says St Michael did.
“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 upon him but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!””
Jude 1:9

http://www.usccb.org/bible/jude
 
on_the_hill said:
which shifts attention from Michael to the Prince of the heavenly hosts. Is this a request of Jesus or Michael? I always would’ve thought Jesus was the Prince of the heavenly hosts. He’s the prince of peace, after all. Or is Michael the Archangel the Price of the heavenly hosts and no one ever told me?
Click to expand...
Jesus is the King of Heaven

St. Michael the Archangel is the “prince” because he’s leader of the angels.
 
When you utter this prayer, you are commanding the commanding General and Prince of the Hosts of Heaven (the Armies of Angels)
You, the one praying, are the one in authority, telling Michael what his assignment is for the day,.
  1. Defend us.
  2. Be our defense against the Devil, and may God join us in this with a rebuke of the Devil.
  3. Thrust Satan and the evil spirits into Hell
When you address St. Michael here, you are Co-Operating with God in a temporal direction of Michael (today).
And Michael, if you can see him, is on one knee before you as you command him.
Then, when you utter, “Amen”, he rises to tower over you and says, “I will do as you and my LORD command me, for, 'who is like our God?”.

And you and he nod to each other confidently.
 
There are quite a few different ways this prayer is worded. I notice when my church says it during mass, you can hear many people saying different ways.

This is how I say it:

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; to thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.
 
If you’re addressing St. Michael, then you wouldn’t suddenly shift into third person to make St. Michael the “him” who’s getting rebuked. Especially when you follow that with “and do thou”. Michael can’t be “him” and “thou” in the same short sentence. It’s pretty obvious the devil is “him”.

As for “Prince of the Heavenly Host”, the word “Prince” in this context means person of the highest rank (same root as the word “principal”). St. Michael is the highest-ranking of the “Heavenly Host” (angels).

Jesus is the King of Heaven but he is not a member of the Heavenly Host, as he’s not an angel, so it would be incorrect to say Jesus was the highest-ranking member of the Heavenly Host.
 
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Adding to what others have said, St. Michael is specifically called “one of the chief princes” in the book of Daniel:
But the prince of the kingdom of the Persians resisted me one and twenty days: and behold Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remained there by the king of the Persians. (Dan 10:13; DRA).

In this fascinating verse we have St. Gabriel speaking referring to two spiritual princes…the “prince of the kingdom of the Persians”, in context, is a high ranking demon who had imprisoned Gabriel. St. Michael is “one of the chief princes” (of heaven) and came to rescue Gabriel.
 
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The Latin prayer (which I presume is older than the English) addresses St Michael as Princeps militiae caelestis, with princeps being a word for a “leader, chief, general, head” or, as it evolved into English, “prince”.
 
I’m not sure what the problem is exactly. What St. Michael, who is the highest of Angels is asked to do is done by the Power of God.
It is God who gives St. Michael the power to act on His behalf for us.
If we who are mortal can be given additional Spiritual power as needed, why can’t God provide St. Michael with any extra powers he might need to fight evil forces prowling the world?
Of course, Satan has already been defeated by the power of the Cross. He knows that he is defeated, and so continues to prowl the earth like an angry lion.
We have the angels, including St. Michael who remained loyal to God, continuing to fight on our behalf. We have the Holy Spirit living within each us with the power to tell the Devil to “get lost” when he bothers us in the middle of prayer.
The prayer to St. Michael was composed by Pope Leo XIII in response to a dream. We see in our own lives the reality of that dream, the many ways that the truth of the Gospel is suppressed.
St. Michael who thrust Lucifer and his defecting angels out of heaven, has the power to defeat the same enemy prowling the world seeking to ruin souls.
We need only look to Scripture, to see that it was Christ who rebuked demons. Yes, we humbly ask God to rebuke Satan during this current battle.
I pray this The Prayer to St. Michael at the end of every rosary.
You may also be interested in the Chaplet to St. Michael, or the Chaplet to the Angels which can be prayed on the St. Michael Chaplet invoking the specific powers of each of the 9 choirs of angels.
 
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