Indulgenced Prayer to St. John, the Apostle

 

O Glorious Apostle, who, on account of thy virginal purity, wast so beloved by Jesus as to deserve to lay thy head upon his divine breast, and to be left, in his place, as son to his most holy Mother; I beg thee to inflame me with a most ardent love towards Jesus and Mary. Obtain for me from our Lord that I, too, with a heart purified from earthly affections, may be made worthy to be ever united to Jesus as a faithful disciple, and to Mary as a devoted son, both here on earth and eternally in heaven. Amen.

(Indulgence 200 days, once a day, Leo XIII, 1897)

December 27th the Feast Day of
St. John the Apostle

It is God Whom we adore at Bethlehem at Christmastime. Thus it was natural that St. John, the chief Evangelist of the Divinity of Christ, should be found beside the crib, to disclose the greatness of the Infant Who reposes therein.

It is to him that Jesus wished to entrust His Mother when Joseph will have passed away. The liturgy therefore, likes to show together, beside the Child and His Mother, him whom the Gospel calls the Apostle the Just Man, and whom the Church today honors with the same title.

The Infant God in the crib gathers around Him pure souls; Mary is the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph the chaste spouse, St. Stephen the first martyr who washes his robe in the blood of the Lamb. Now behold St. John, the virgin apostle. Crowned with the halo of those who knew how to conquer their flesh, for this reason he became "the disciple whom Jesus loved, and whom also leaned on His breast at supper." Thanks to his angelic purity, he imbibed that wholesome wisdom of which the Epistle speaks and which won for him the halo of Doctor.

It is to St. John who wrote a Gospel, three Epistles and the Apocalypse that we owe the most beautiful pages on the Divinity of the Word made flesh; and it is for this reason that he is symbolized by the eagle which sores in the heights. Finally he received the halo of martyr, since he only escaped a violent death by that special protection of which the Gospel speaks and which made man believe that the beloved disciple would not die. Actually, he did not depart this life until all of the other Apostles passed away. His name is mentioned with theirs in the cannon of the mass.

(St. Andrew's Daily Missal)