Common of Apostles — Generic prayer to the Twelve and to St Paul

The Apostles are the pillars of the Church: they were personally chosen by the Lord from among a multitude of disciples (Lk 6:13), constituted by him as ministers of the Kingdom and sent into the whole world (Mt 28:19). The Church is for this reason called apostolic in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed: built upon the foundation of the Apostles, she preserves without rupture their teaching, their succession and their missionary mandate (cf. Lumen Gentium 18-22; CCC 857-865). This prayer may be prayed on any feast of an Apostle of the Roman Calendar (Sts Peter and Paul 29/6; St Andrew 30/11; St Thomas 3/7; St Matthew 21/9; Sts Philip and James 3/5; St Bartholomew 24/8; St James the Greater 25/7; Sts Simon and Jude 28/10; St John 27/12; St Matthias 14/5; Conversion of St Paul 25/1).

Eternal and almighty God, who upon the foundation of the holy Apostles willed to build your Church, and through their word caused to reach all nations the announcement of the salvation brought by Christ your Son: grant us to keep faithfully the faith we received by their hands, to persevere in the unity they sealed with their blood, and to proclaim with their courage the Gospel before the whole world.

Through the intercession of the Twelve and of the Apostle of the Gentiles, give us the Shepherds which every hour requires; to the baptised, fidelity to the apostolic Magisterium which succeeds from them; and to the whole Earth, the hope of arriving at the heavenly Jerusalem, whose twelve foundations bear the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb (cf. Rev 21:14).

Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory be.