Prayer Intention for the Week

September 2 - 8, 2018


That the Holy Spirit may inspire us to think of, speak about and do the things that would glorify God the Father and cause the salvation of souls. Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord and Friend. Amen.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

St John the Beloved: Patron of Holy Friendship


Image from
cyberbrethren.com
Saint John the Apostle is called the Beloved because among the Twelve Apostles he was the one closest to the Lord. It was not because the Lord showed favoritism. It was just because among the Twelve St John was the youngest and probably the one who has shown the best example of childlike dependence on God and the Lord Jesus Christ. He was so close to the Lord that during the Last Supper he reclined next to Jesus thus he could even lean back closer to the chest of Jesus to ask Him secretly about who was the person to betray Him [see John 13:25].


Of the Twelve, he was the only one to die without being martyred. But also the last one to be reunited with his beloved Master, our Lord Jesus Christ. While still hanging upon the cross, the Lord entrusted to him the Blessed Virgin Mary, and he to her [see John 19: 26-27].

He is the younger brother of St James the Greater. The two of them, Sons of Zebedee,  were called the Sons of Thunder by the Lord [see Mark 3:17] because though they had gentleness and calmness of manner, when their patience is pushed to the limit their anger become wild like when some Samaritan towns did not let them pass through and they asked the Lord if they could summon fire to rain down upon the towns that refused entry to the Lord

With Peter and his brother James they form the so-called inner circle of Jesus' Apostles. Such attribute was accorded to them because they were the only ones who were witnesses to the Transfiguration [see Matthew 17:1], the raising of the daughter of Jairus [see Mark 5:37], and were stationed closer to the Lord during the agony in the garden of Gethsemane [see Matthew 26:37].

He is also considered to be the author of the Fourth Gospel, the Letters of John and the Book of Revelation [Apocalypse] though many believe that the most probable writers of the above are only his disciples, or some other people. As the author of the Fourth Gospel, he was given the eagle as a symbol because of the loftiness of his ideas in the First Chapter, verse 1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

He is also considered as the Apostle of Charity and the Patron Saint of Friendship, perhaps because of his closeness to the Lord and that passage of the Gospel he wrote, 15: 12-17, which we call the Gospel of Holy Friendship hence we consider him as the Patron Saint of Holy Friendship, not just any type of friendship. 

John was so consumed by God's love that he is the only evangelist to record the Lord Jesus Christ's discourse on friendship and loving one another during the Last Supper. This theme he also discussed even in his epistles [see 1 John 3:11, 23; 4:7, 11; 2 John 1:5, also 1 John 2: 9-11]. The command to love one another as a requirement to be the Lord's friends is somehow concretized by the washing of the Apostles' feet episode [see John 13: 1-12] with the Lord's admonition to do the same [see John 13: 13-15]

He is truly suited to be our Patron of the Holy Friendship for he is not only close to the Lord but because he taught about the love of the Lord. Let us call upon his intercession so that whenever we ask him to pray for us, he will just lean back close to the chest of the Lord and secretly tell Him, "Your loving friends need your help, Lord."


1 comment:

  1. I ask Saint John in his help restoring my friendship with Kyle S.he thinks I am full of itwhen I tell him I want to go to new braunfels and hang out with him but. I told him my truck cant be pushed thstfar.I have upset him I want his friendship back. .I want to spend time with him id like forbhim to come here id even pay for half the gas!.plz bring Kyle S back as my friend, on face book, in my text, calling me and coming here to lakehillsto hang wiith me.thank you St.John..amen

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