Day 4: The choir of the Dominions

The fourth day of the Saint Michael Novena petitions through the choir of the Dominions and asks for the grace to master disordered passions.

The Dominions

The Dominions are the fourth choir of angels, beginning the middle hierarchy. Saint Paul names them in his cosmic survey of the heavenly powers (Colossians 1:16). Their name expresses their function: they hold dominion over the lower orders of angels and over the natural creation, exercising authority on God's behalf.

The Dominions are characterized in Catholic angelology by mastery: the right ordering of created powers under God's lordship. They are the angelic exemplars of what every Christian is called to be in the spiritual life: the rightful master of one's own faculties, with the passions ordered to reason and reason to faith.

The grace of Day 4

Today we ask through the intercession of Saint Michael and the Dominions for the grace to master disordered passions: that anger, lust, gluttony, pride, envy, and the other capital sins may be brought under the dominion of grace, and that we may rule our own selves as the Dominions rule under God.

Prayer

Saint Michael the Archangel, by your intercession and that of the choir of the Dominions, obtain for us the grace of self-mastery in Christ. Where we are governed by passion, restore right order. Where we are unruled, give us the dominion of grace over ourselves.

O Lord God, set our affections in order. Amen.

Conclude with one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be.