Thank you to all who celebrated St Joseph the Workman!
Plus today is the Feast of St John at the Latin Gate and continued prayers for the conclave...
Please accept our heartfelt gratitude to all of our members and volunteers who helped make our Feast of St Joseph the Workman Celebration a wonderful evening. Thank you to Joshua Charles for his excellent talk, Q&A, and generosity of time spent with the men of our Fraternal Society.
We hope to see you at our next event in September when we celebrate San Gennaro!
Today is a secondary Feast of our Patron Saint, St John the Apostle.
Domitian was then Emperor—the tyrant over Rome and the world. Whether it were that John understood this journey of his own free choice, and from a wish to visit the Mother-Church, or that he was led thither bound with chains, in obedience to an imperial edict—John, the august founder of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor, appeared before the Tribunal of pagan Rome. He was convicted of having propagated, in a vast province of the Empire, the worship of a Jew that had been crucified under Pontius Pilate. He was a superstitious and rebellious old man, and it was time to rid Asia of his presence. He was therefore sentenced to an ignominious and cruel death. He had somehow escaped Nero’s power; but he should not elude the vengeance of Cæsar Domitian!
A huge cauldron of boiling oil is prepared in front of the Latin Gate. The sentence orders that the preacher of Christ be plunged into this bath. The hour is come for the second son of Salome to partake of his Master’s Chalice. John’s heart leaps with joy at the thought that he—the most dear to Jesus, and yet the only Apostle that has not suffered death for him—is at least permitted to give him this earnest of his love. After cruelly scourging him, the executioners seize the old man, and throw him into the cauldron; but lo! the boiling liquid has lost all its heat; the Apostle feels no scalding; on the contrary, when they take him out again, he feels all the vigor of his youthful years restored to him. The Prætor’s cruelty is foiled and John, the Martyr in desire, is to be left to the Church for some few years longer. An imperial decree banishes him to the rugged Isle of Patmos, where God reveals to him the future of the Church, even to the end of time.
The Church of Rome, which counts the abode and martyrdom of St. John as one of her most glorious memories, has marked, with a Basilica, the spot where the Apostle bore his noble testimony to the Christian Faith. This Basilica stands near the Latin Gate, and give a title to one of the Cardinals.
— Dom Prosper Gueranger, The Liturgical Year
St. John suffered above the other saints a martyrdom of love, being a martyr, and more than a martyr, at the foot of the cross of his divine Master, with the true lovers of Jesus, Magdalen, and the Blessed Virgin mother. All his sufferings were by love and compassion imprinted in his soul, and thus shared by him. O singular happiness of St. John, to have stood under the cross of Christ, so near his divine person, when the other disciples had all forsaken him! O extraordinary privilege, to have suffered martyrdom in the person of Jesus, and been eye-witness or all he did or endured, and of all that happened to him in that great sacrifice and mystery! Here he drank of his cup; this was truly a martyrdom, and our Saviour exempted all those who had assisted at the martyrdom of his cross from suffering death by the hands of persecutors. St. John, nevertheless, received also the crown of this second martyrdom, to which the sacrifice of his will was not wanting, but only the execution.
— Fr. Alban Butler, The Lives of the Saints
Finally, with the forthcoming conclave we invite you to join us in continuing to pray for the election of a Holy Pope: (find the following prayer in both Latin and English)1
Oratio pro eligendo Summo Pontifice
Deus Pater Omnipotens, qui in creationis initio aquas primordiales calmasti, Sancto volitante Spiritu, eundem Spiritum super Ecclesiam Tuam protinus mittere digneris Successorem Sancti Apostoli Petri elegendi caussa, ut tranquillitas, novo Romano Pontifice rite electo, foveatur atque dilatetur.
Deus Domine Iesu, cuius Corpus est Ecclesia a Te Tuum super Apostolum Petrum fundata, Cardinales, quorum eius Successorem eligere est munus, munias angelica protectione necnon multis robores gratiis, quaesumus, ut his in diebus ante et inter Conclavi conventum, dicta eorum et facta fide digno pro Ecclesiae Tuae bono ad pacem et salutem animarum consequantur.
Deus Spiritus Sancte, Paraclite, Trinitatis Divine Afflatus, omnes sedes habitaculaque Cardinalium Electorum perflare digneris, quaesumus supplicantes, ut diabolicas fraudes repellas, disceptationes veritate et caritate informes, vires exstrinsecas contundas, Ecclesiae Tuae denuo claritatem et serenitatem afferas.
Deus Sanctissima Trinitas, in infinita Tua misericordia et secundum providentiam Tuam Tua pro Ecclesia ineffabilem, inspira urge et insusurra, etiam signis supernaturalibus si opus sit, Cardinales in Conclavi ut nobis munerent bonum Papam et sapientem, mitem Pastorem sed fortem, Christi Vicarium fidelem et reverentem, precantem Petri Successorem et prudentem, amantem mores maiorum Romanum Pontificem et serventem, stabilem pium virilem et sanctum, scilicet meliorem quam mereamur. Amen.
Santa Dei Genetrix, intercede pro nobis.
Sancte Petre, intercede pro nobis.
Sante Paule, intercede pro nobis.
Omnes Sancti Papae, intercedite pro nobis.
Prayer for the Election of the Roman Pontiff
O God the Father Almighty, who at the beginning of creation calmed the primordial waters by the hovering of the Holy Spirit, deign swiftly to send the same Spirit upon Your Church for the purpose of electing the Successor of the Holy Apostle Peter, so that, the new Roman Pontiff duly elected, tranquility may be fostered and expanded.
O God, Lord Jesus, whose Body is the Church founded by You on the Apostle Peter, grant, we beg You, that you defend with angelic protection and strengthen with many graces the Cardinals whose task it is to elect his Successor, so that in these days before and during the Conclave, their words and deeds, for the true good of You Church, will result in peace and the salvation of souls.
O God the Holy Spirit, Paraclete, Divine Breath of the Trinity, deign to waft through all the locales and dwellings of the Cardinals-elect, on our knees we beg You, to repel diabolical schemes, to crush external forces, to bring clarity and serenity to Your Church.
O God, Most Holy Trinity, in Your infinite mercy and according to Your ineffable providence for the Church, inspire, guide and gently urge, if necessary even with supernatural signs, the Cardinals in the Conclave to grant us a good and wise Pope, a kindly but strong Shepherd, a faithful and reverent Vicar of Christ, a praying and prudent Successor of Peter, a Roman Pontiff who loves and preserves the customs of our forebears, a steadfast, pious, virile and holy man, namely, one better than we deserve. Amen.
Holy Mother of God, intercede for us.
Saint Peter, intercede for us.
Saint Paul, intercede for us.
All Holy Popes, intercede for us.
https://wdtprs.com/2025/04/orationes-pro-eligendo-romano-pontifice-prayers-for-the-election-of-a-roman-pontiff-fr-zs-and-card-burkes/