Saint/Holy Michael the Archangel and the other Angels were created by God before He had finished creating and they  “lights” or stars in the sky were probably the Angels.  The Angels did not deserve to be in Heaven face to Face with God, so He tested their loyalty, so that those, who put pleasing Him, first, before anything else, would be rewarded with an eternity in Heaven, and those, who would not do His Will would spend an eternity in hell, in never-ending horror.  The Angels are created spirits, who have no material body, naturally, although they can assume any shape they wish to assume.  They have perfect intelligence and can move from one end of the universe to the other at the speed of thought.  Since they are not distracted by senses and sensual input — they have no need to eat, drink, breathe, sleep, etc.; they cannot change their minds once they have made a decision, because they have all of the facts necesssary to make a good decision without many of the factors, which can cloud the judgment of human beings.

Since God sees everything in Heaven, on earth, and in all of the universe at the same time — time is a created thing — He knew from all eternity that His Son would take the Form of a Human Being, live, suffer, and die, to redeem mankind from its sin.  He also knew that there would be Angels and even human beings, who would not accept this Wondrous Gift of Redemption, but He, as God, had and has a right to demand that His creatures put Him before everyone and everything else.  If not for God, no creature would ever have been created, because He created and creates them out of nothing, which no one else has the capability to do.  If God forgot the Angels, they would not exist, because He Is The One, Who keeps them in existence.

According to The Mystical City of God, by Venerable Mary of Agreda, a wonderful 4‑volume set of information from Visions of The Blessed Virgin Mary, which several Popes have approved, Lucifer — “light-bearer” or “daystar”, was created the most beautiful of all of the Angels.  He was/is a Seraph, the choir of Angels, which is closest to God.  Normally, Seraphs/Seraphim have six wings, but Lucifer had/has twelve wings, so he probably had a problem with pride from the moment that he noticed how much difference there was between him and the other Seraphim, let alone the rest of the Angels.  The Angels were shown that God The Son was going to take the Form of a Human Being, and they knew that human beings would be much weaker and less intelligent than they were, so that was bad enough in and of itself for them.  But, when God showed them that God The Son was also going to humble Himself so far as to be actually BORN of a human mother, that was it!  Lucifer, even though he knew that God Was and Is Almighty and that he would be separated from God for eternity if he did not serve Him, he still decided to say very vehemently:  “Non serviat!”  “I will not serve!”  meaning that he would not serve or obey God and assent to His future plans.

The war was on!  Mi-cha-el’s, (“el” means God) battle-cry was “Who is like God?!”  meaning to say to Lucifer:  “Just who do you think that you are trying to oppose The One and Only God?!”  The Holy Archangels were at a much lower level than the Seraphim, but Michael led two thirds of the Angels against lucifer and the other third of the various choirs of angels, which followed him, and, of course, Michael won.  After that, Holy Archangel Michael was placed at the head of the other Angels, and he and Holy Archangel Gabriel and Holy Archangel Raphael are three of the chief messengers of God.  September 29th used to be only the Feast of Holy Archangel Michael, but the new calendar places all three Holy Archangels on that Feast.  In the traditional calendar, Holy Archangel Raphael’s Feast is on October 24th, and Holy Archangel Gabriel’s Feast is on March 24th, the Eve of The Feast of The Annunciation, which definitely makes sense.

The first and most important duty of any Angel is to adore, love, and praise our Lord before His Throne.  Then, those, who leave Heaven, are to console those in Purgatory and to help all of those on earth to reach Heaven.

St. Michael/Holy Archangel “Michael is Patron of knights, policemen, soldiers, paramedics, ambulance drivers, etc., and also for safety at sea, for the sick, and for a holy death (after St. Joseph).  He is usually depicted in art, carrying a sword and/or shield, battling satan.” 

Very powerful, short prayer: 

“St. Michael, St. Michael, [Holy] Angel of Light, in this grave moment, show forth Thy Might.  Amen.” (9 times or continually in emergency)

There are nine choirs of Angels, listed in order of closeness to God:  Seraph, plural — Seraphim, Cherub, pl. ‑Cherubim, the Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, Powers, Virtues, Archangels, Angels.  The Choir of “Angels” must include the “Guardian Angels”.  Each Angel is a separate species in and of itself.

Saint Gabriel, the Archangel:

(Father Pros­per Gueranger 1870)

“Gabriel is one of the first of the Angelic Kingdom. He tells Zachary, that he stands before The Face of God (St. Luke, i. 19.).  He is the Angel of The Incarnation, because it is in This Mystery, which apparently is so humble, that The Power of God is principally manifested: and Gabriel signifies The Strength of God.  We find the Archangel preparing for his sublime office, even in the Old Testament.  First of all, he appears to Daniel, after this Prophet had had the vision of the Persian and Grecian Empires; and such was the majesty of his person that Daniel fell on his face trembling (Dan. vii.17).  Shortly afterwards, he appears again to the same Prophet, telling him the exact time of the coming of the Messias:  Know thou and take notice:  that from the going forth of the word to build up Jerusalem again, unto Christ The Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks (Ibid. ix. 25), that is, sixty-nine weeks of years.When the fulness of time had come, and Heaven was about to send the last of the Prophets, he, who after preaching to men the approach of the Messias, is to show him to the people, saying:  Behold The Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sins of the world, Gabriel descends from Heaven to the temple of Jerusalem, and prophesies to Zachary the birth of John the Baptist (St. Luke, i. 13), which was to be followed by that of Jesus Himself.

Six months lat­er on, the holy Archangel again appears on the earth; and this time it is Nazareth, that he vis­its.  He brings the great mes­sage from Heav­en.  Angel, as he is, he reveres The Hum­ble Maid, whose name is Mary; he has been sent to Her by The Most High God, to offer Her the immense hon­or of becom­ing The Moth­er of The Eter­nal Word. It is Gabriel, that receives the great Fiat, the con­sent of Mary; and when he quits this earth, he leaves it in pos­ses­sion of Him, for whom it had so long prayed in those words of Isa­ias: Drop down Dew, O ye Heav­ens (Is. xlv. 8.)!

The hour at length came, when The Moth­er of The Emmanuel was to bring forth The Blessed Fruit of Her Vir­ginal Womb.  Jesus was born amidst pover­ty; but Heav­en willed that His Crib should be sur­round­ed by fer­vent ador­ers.  An Angel appeared to some Shep­herds, invit­ing them to go to the Sta­ble near Beth­le­hem.  He is accom­pa­nied by a mul­ti­tude of the heav­en­ly army, sweet­ly singing their hymn:  ‘Glo­ry to God in the high­est, and on earth peace to men of good will!’  Who is this Angel that speaks to the Shep­herds, and seems as the chief of the oth­er blessed Spir­its, that are with him?  In the opin­ion of sev­er­al learned writ­ers, it is the Archangel Gabriel, who is keep­ing up his min­istry as Mes­sen­ger of the Good Tid­ings (St. Luke, ii. 10).

Lastly, when Jesus is suffering His Agony in the Garden of Gethsemani, an Angel appears to Him, not merely as a witness of His Suffering, but that he might strengthen Him…”  (Ibid. xxii. 42, 43.).  Who is this Angel?  It is Gabriel, as we learn not only from the writings of several holy and learned authors, but also from a Hymn, which the Holy See has permitted to be used in the Liturgy, and which we give below.

These are the claims of the great Archangel to our veneration and love; these are the proofs he gives of his deserving his beautiful name, The Strength of God.  God has employed him in each stage of the great work, in which he has chiefly manifested his power, for Jesus, even on His Cross, Is The Power of God (1 Cor. i. 21.), as the Apostle tells us.  Gabriel prepares the way for Jesus.  He foretells the precise time of His Coming; he announces the birth of His Precursor; he is present at the solemn moment when the Word Is Made Flesh; he invites the Shepherds of Bethlehem to come to the Crib, and adore The Divine Babe; and when Jesus, in His Agony, is to receive Strength from one of His own creatures, Gabriel is found ready in the Garden of Gethsemani, as he had been at Nazareth and Bethlehem.

Let us, then, honour the Angel of The Incarnation.  For this purpose, let us recite in his praise some of the pieces, which liturgical piety has composed for his Feast.

The two following Hymns are from the Franciscan Breviary:

Hymn I:

Let us all exult with joyous hearts, and strike the tuneful lyre; ’tis the great Gabriel that comes in all his brightness from the high heavens.

This is the feast of the glorious Virgin’s Messenger, and with him comes the whole host of Angels, singing in varied hymns the praises of Christ.

Let our choir, therefore, sing the praises of Gabriel the Prince, for he is one of the Seven that stand before the Lord, and do his biddings.

Gabriel cheerfully descends whithersoever God wills, for he is the Messenger of heaven, nay the mediator that reveals to the world the secret decrees of the Omnipotent God.

Be thou, O Gabriel, we beseech thee, Messenger to us of the special gift of eternal peace, wherewith we may finally reach Heaven, and everlastingly rejoice.

May The Godhead Ever Blessed of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Whose Glory is proclaimed through the whole world, grant us this our prayer.  Amen.

Hymn II:

The Dominican breviary contains this beautiful Hymn in honor of the Holy Archangel:

Prayer:

The whole human race is indebted to Thee, O Gabriel! and, on this day, we would fain pay thee the honor and gratitude we owe thee.  Thou wast moved to holy compassion when seeing the miseries of the world; for all flesh had corrupted its way, and the forgetfulness of God increased with each new generation of men.  Then did The Most High commission Thee to bring to the world the good tidings of its Salvation.  How beautiful thy steps, O Prince of the heavenly court, as Thou camest down to this our humble sphere!  How tender and fraternal is Thy love of man, whose nature, though so inferior to Thine own, was to be raised, by The Mystery of The Incarnation, to Union with God, Himself!  With what respectful awe didst Thou not approach The Virgin, who surpassed all of the Angels in holiness! 

Blessed Messenger of our Redemption! whom God selects as His Minister when He would show His Power, we beseech Thee, offer the homage of our gratitude to Him, that thus sent Thee.  Help us to pay the immense debt we owe to The Father, Who so loved the world, as to give it His Only Begotten Son (St. John, iii. 16.); to the Son, Who emptied himself, taking the Form of a Servant; and to The Holy Ghost, Who rested on the Flower that sprang up out of the root of Jesse (Is. xi. 1).

‘Twas Thou, O Gabriel! that taughtest us the salutation, wherewith we should greet Mary ‘Full of Grace.  Thou wast the first to pronounce these sublime words, which Thou broughtest from Heaven.  The children of The Church are now, day and night, repeating these words of Thine; pray for us, that we may say them in such a manner, as that our Blessed Mother may find them worthy of Her acceptance.

Angel of Strength, Friend of Mankind! relent not in thy ministry of aiding us.  We are surrounded by terrible enemies; our weakness makes them bold: come to our assistance; get us courage.  Pray for us during these days of conversion and penance.  Obtain for us the knowledge of all, that we owe to God in consequence of That Ineffable Mystery of The Incarnation, of which Thou wast the first witness.  We have forgotten our duties to the Man-God, and we have offended Him: enlighten us, that so, henceforth, we may be faithful to His teachings and examples.  Raise up our thoughts to The Happy Abode, where Thou dwellest; assist us to merit the places left vacant by the fallen angels, for God has reserved them for His Elect among men.

Pray, O Gabriel, for The Church Militant, and defend her against the attacks of hell.  The times are evil; the spirits of malice are let loose, nor can we make stand against them, unless with God’s Help.  It is by His Holy Angels that He gives victory to His Spouse.  Be Thou, O Strength of God! foremost in the ranks.  Drive heresy back, keep schism down, foil the false wisdom of men, frustrate the policy of the world, arouse the well-minded from apathy; that thus, The Christ, Whom Thou didst announce, may reign over the earth He has redeemed, and that we may sing together with Thee and the whole angelic choir:  ‘Glory be to God!  Peace to men!’ ”

(taken from http://catholicharboroffaithandmorals.com/Gabriel.html)

Saint Raphael, the Archangel:

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Sermon of St. Bonaventure Bishop Lesson IV

Raphael is interpreted, “medicine of God.” Note that Raphael heals us by bestowing three benefits to cure us of evil. Raphael the physician heals the illness of our souls by leading us to the bitterness of contrition. Therefore in the book of Tobias it is said, “When thou shalt enter thy house, anoint his eyes with gall.” Tobias did so, his father’s eyes were healed, and he saw. Why could Raphael not do this himself? Because an angel can not give contrition, he can merely point the way. The gall symbolizes the bitterness of contrition which heals the inner eye of the mind. As the psalm say, “Who heals the broken heart.” The bitterness of contrition is the best eye salve. In the second chapter of Judges it is related that the angel ascended to the place of the weepers and said to the people, “I have led you out of the land of Egypt, I have done for you so many and such good things.” All the people wept so that the place is called the place of the weepers. Dearly beloved, all day long the angels tell us of the blessings of God and recall them to our memories. Who created you? Who redeemed you? What have you done? Whom have you offended? If you consider these things you have no recourse but to weep.

In the second place, Raphael leads us out of the devil’s bondage by recalling to our minds the passion of Christ. This is expressed figuratively in the sixth chapter of Tobias. Raphael says, “If thou wilt place a little piece of its heart upon the coals, the smoke thereof driveth away all kinds of devils.” In the eighth chapter we read that Tobias did place the little piece of its heart upon the coals, and that Raphael bound the devil in the desert of upper Egypt. What does this mean? Could not Raphael have bound the devil if the heart had not been placed upon the coals? Did the heart of a fish give such great power to an Angel? Not at all. The heart of the fish in itself could do nothing; its significance lies in it as a mystical figure. Here we are to understand that there is today nothing which can free us from the slavery of the devil but the passion of Christ. This proceeded from the depths of his heart, namely form His love. The heart is the warm fountain of all life. If therefore you place upon the coals, that is upon your kindled memory, the heart of Christ, that is the passion He underwent which sprang from the root of charity and font of all warm affection, the devil will be bound instantly. He can not harm you.

Third­ly, Raphael frees us from the wrath of God which we incur by sin­ning against God. He does this by induc­ing us to pray earnest­ly. This is what Raphael the Archangel told Tobias in the twelfth chap­ter, “When thou didst pray with tears, I offered thy prayer to the Lord.” the angels them­selves, so far as they are able, try to rec­on­cile us with God. The dev­ils are our accusers before God. The angels excuse us when they offer to God the prayers they have induced us to say devout­ly. This we read in the eighth chap­ter of the Apoc­a­lypse, “The smoke of the incense ascend­ed in the sight of God from the hands of the Angel.” Those sweet fra­grant spices are the prayers of the saints Would you appease God whom you have offend­ed? Pray then with fer­vor. The angels offer your prayer to God in order to rec­on­cile you with him. In like man­ner, it is relat­ed that when Christ was in agony in the gar­den, he prayed the more earnest­ly. An angel appeared and com­fort­ed Him. All this was done for our sake. Christ had no need to be com­fort­ed. Rather was it done to show that the Angels help those who pray earnest­ly, that they help them will­ing­ly, com­fort them and offer their prayers to God.

From the Roman Breviary

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Hymn for the Feast of St. Raphael, at Vespers

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Prayer for Safe Travel

The fol­low­ing prayer is an adap­ta­tion of the itin­er­ar­i­um, the prayer said by cler­ics to invoke God’s pro­tec­tion before begin­ning a jour­ney. The faith­ful who are about to trav­el may us this form to pray for God’s bless­ing on their jour­neys.

A long the ways of peace and pros­per­i­ty may The Almighty and Mer­ci­ful Lord lead us, and may the Angel Raphael accom­pa­ny us on the jour­ney.  So may we in peace, health, and joy return unto our own.

Let us Pray:

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Hymn: Placare, Christe

O Christ, thy ser­vants’ wan­der­ings spare;

For whom Thy Maid­en-Moth­er’s prayer

Beseech­es at Thy throne of grace

Mer­cy before the Father’s face.

Be near us, Angel from on high,
Whose name God’s might doth signify;
Strengthen the weak with ceaseless ward,
And to the sad thine help afford.

Ye nine­fold ranks of Angel-choirs,
Whose order for our help conspires,
All past and present ills dispel,
From future dan­ger guard us well.

Drive far away in shamed disgrace
From Chris­t­ian lands the faith­less race;
That so the rule one Shep­herd hold
Over one flock, one sin­gle fold.
T o God the Father praise be done,
Who hath redeemed us through His Son,
Anoints us by the Holy Ghost,
And guards us by the Angel-host. Amen

(Roman Bre­viary)
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Prayer for a Chris­t­ian Family
O God of good­ness and mer­cy, to Thy Father­ly pro­tec­tion we com­mend our fam­i­ly, our house­hold and all that belongs to us. We com­mit all to Thy love and keep­ing; do Thou fill this house with Thy bless­ings even as Thou didst fill the holy House of Nazareth with Thy Presence.

Creation and the Angels

Les­son 4 from the Bal­ti­more Cathechism

35. What do we mean when we say that God is the Creator of heaven and earth?

When we say that God is the Cre­ator of heav­en and earth we mean that He made all things from noth­ing by His almighty power.

I am the Lord God, that make all things, that alone stretch out the heav­ens, that estab­lish the earth. (Isa­iah 44:24)

36. Which are the chief creatures of God?

The chief crea­tures of God are angels and men.

Thou hast made him a lit­tle less than the angels; thou hast crowned him with glo­ry and hon­or; and thou hast set him over the works of thy hands. (Psalm 8:6–7)

37. What are angels?

Angels are cre­at­ed spir­its, with­out bod­ies, hav­ing under­stand­ing and free will.

Thou­sands and thou­sands min­is­tered to him, and ten thou­sand times a hun­dred thou­sand stood before him. (Daniel 7:10)

38. What gifts did God bestow on the angels when He created them?

When God cre­at­ed the angels He bestowed on them great wis­dom, pow­er, and holiness.

O ye angels of the Lord, bless the Lord. (Daniel 3:58)

39. Did all the angels remain faithful to God?

Not all the angels remained faith­ful to God; some of them sinned.                                         And there was a bat­tle in heav­en; Michael and his angels bat­tled with the drag­on, and the drag­on fought and his angels. And they did not pre­vail, nei­ther was their place found any more in heav­en. (Apoc­a­lypse 12:7)

40. What happened to the angels who remained faithful to God?

The angels who remained faith­ful to God entered into the eter­nal hap­pi­ness of heav­en, and these are called good angels.

See that you do not despise one of these lit­tle ones; for I tell you, their angels in heav­en always behold the face of my Father in heav­en. (Matthew 18:10)

41. What do the good angels do in heaven?

In heav­en the good angels see, love, and adore God.

42. How do the good angels help us?

The good angels help us by pray­ing for us, by act­ing as mes­sen­gers from God to us, and by serv­ing as our guardian angels.

For to his angels he has giv­en thee in trust, to keep thee in all thy ways. In their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash they foot against a stone. (Psalm 90:11–12)

43. How do our guardian angels help us?

Our guardian angels help us by pray­ing for us, by pro­tect­ing us from harm, and by inspir­ing us to do good.

When thou didst pray with thy tears, and didst bury the dead, and didst leave thy din­ner, and hide the dead by day in thy house, and bury them by night, I offered thy prayer to the Lord. (Tobias 12:12)

44. What happened to the angels who did not remain faithful to God?

The angels who did not remain faith­ful to God were cast into hell, and these are called bad angels, or devils.

Depart from me, accursed ones, into the ever­last­ing fire which was pre­pared for the dev­il and his angels. (Matthew 25:41)

45. What is the chief way in which the bad angels try to harm us?

The chief way in which the bad angels try to harm us is by tempt­ing us to sin.

Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the dev­il. (Eph­esians 6:11)

46. Do all temptations come from the bad angels?

Some temp­ta­tions come from the bad angels; but oth­er temp­ta­tions come from our­selves and from the per­sons and things about us.

Do not love the world, or the things that are in the world. (I John 2:15)

47. Can we always resist temptations?

We can always resist temp­ta­tions, because no temp­ta­tion can force us into sin, and because God will always help us if we ask Him.

And He has said to me, “My grace is suf­fi­cient for thee.” (I Corinthi­ans 12:9)

tak­en from:  http://www.catholicity.com/baltimore-catechism/lesson05.html