Defend us in battle

St. Michael stained-glass window at St. Patrick Catholic Church, Portland.

CHEERFUL is today's DDW challenge topic.

St. Patrick is the oldest Catholic church in Portland, dating from around 1890. I came here today after water aerobics to celebrate the Feast of All Souls, the remembrance of our beloved dead. The congregation was tiny and the mass was partly in English, mostly in Spanish, with a sprinkling of Latin. The missalette was bilingual, but the Spanish went by much too fast for me to recognize more than a shower of nouns with no verbs to glue them together. It was relaxing. The priests who serve this parish are from an order in Argentina and their Spanish is beautiful to listen to, even if I don't understand much of it. The gestures of the mass are familiar and the rhythm of the responses is recognizable even when the words are not.

This stained-glass window made me laugh. Traditionally, St. Michael is an archangel - but where are his wings? Traditionally, he slew a dragon, but this looks more like a stingray! Still, the image brought to mind a prayer I have often prayed. (Before Vatican II it was recited after every mass.)

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in the day of battle.
Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God
cast into hell Satan and all evil spirits
who roam the world seeking the ruin of souls.

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NaNoWriMo has begun, albeit a day late. I don't know where the stormcloud came from that suddenly appeared over my head yesterday, but thankfully it has let down its rain and departed. Since I didn't seem capable of writing anything else, I did some journaling, gathering my intention to persevere. And today I began in earnest. I have overcome an obstacle and am restored to cheerfulness.

May the Holy Spirit, who has begun a good work in me, direct and uphold me.

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To whoever has been sprinkling handfuls of stars on my commentless blips, many thanks. It makes me cheerful and encouraged to receive them!