Saint John, whom I have chosen as my special patron, pray for me that I, too, may one day glorify the Blessed Trinity in Heaven.

Obtain for me your lively faith, that I may consider all persons, things, and events in the light of Almighty God.

Pray, that I may be generous in making sacrifices of temporal things to promote my eternal interests, as you so wisely did.

Set me on fire with a love for Jesus, that I may thirst for His sacraments and burn with zeal for the spread of His kingdom.

By your powerful intercession, help me in the performance of my duties to God, myself and all the world. Win for me the virtue of purity and a great confidence in the Blessed Virgin.

Protect me this day, and every day of my life. Keep me from mortal sin. Obtain for me the grace of a happy death. Amen

 
 
IT IS GOD WHOM WE ADORE AT BETHLEHEM AT CHRISTMASTIME.

Thus it was natural that Saint 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, Saint Joseph the chaste spouse, Saint 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 Saint 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.