SAINTS OF TODAY
Thursday 29 September 2016
Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels - Feast
About Today
Liturgical Colour: White.
St Michael
He is mentioned in the Apocalypse as the leader of the heavenly host. He is a patron of soldiers.
________
St Gabriel
He appears in the book of Daniel to explain some of the prophet’s visions, and was also the bearer of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
________
St Raphael
In the Book of Tobit, he is the angel who heals Tobit of his blindness. His name means God heals.
________
Liturgical colour: white
White is the colour of heaven. Liturgically, it is used to celebrate feasts of the Lord; Christmas and Easter, the great seasons of the Lord; and the saints. Not that you will always see white in church, because if something more splendid, such as gold, is available, that can and should be used instead. We are, after all, celebrating.
In the earliest centuries all vestments were white – the white of baptismal purity and of the robes worn by the armies of the redeemed in the Apocalypse, washed white in the blood of the Lamb. As the Church grew secure enough to be able to plan her liturgy, she began to use colour so that our sense of sight could deepen our experience of the mysteries of salvation, just as incense recruits our sense of smell and music that of hearing. Over the centuries various schemes of colour for feasts and seasons were worked out, and it is only as late as the 19th century that they were harmonized into their present form.
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