256: Oremus Pro Pontifice Nostro Leone

 Today is the 71st birthday of Pope Leo XIV, the second since he was elected as my family and I drove north through Tennessee on my way to graduate with my bachelor’s, and found out that, by pure happy coincidence, a pre-planned north from Springfield to Chicago to celebrate with family would in fact put us practically in the backyard of Robert Prevost the little boy.

To 1.4 billion people, the Pope is very important, and we pray for him every time a Mass is celebrated (24/7, somewhere in the world, every day of the year except Good Friday). To that end, a particular chant seems especially appropriate for today, one which I first found out about at the beginning of Pope Francis’s final illness, as I followed each day of the Rosaries in St. Peter’s Square for his recovery: the “Oremus Pro Pontifice,” which is lyrically distinct from being a musical setting of the Good Friday petition for the Pope. (The chant translates to “Let us pray for N, our Pope. May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.” and is a reference to Psalm 40:3, while the Good Friday petition is “Let us pray also for our most Holy Father Pope N., that our God and Lord, who chose him for the Order of Bishops, may keep him safe and unharmed for the Lord’s holy Church, to govern the holy People of God”. Thank you, by the way, to my friend Josh Mansfield, for that clarification.)

Here are 3 versions:

1. On the last Solemnity of Peter and Paul (the Pope is the successor of Peter) of the pontificate of Benedict XVI in late June 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gi-EX4lKJQ&list=RD0gi-EX4lKJQ&start_radio=1

2. Less than a month into the pontificate of Pope Francis, as he took possession of his Cathedral in April 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btyPToj4r9A&list=RDbtyPToj4r9A&start_radio=1

3. At the exit procession at the conclusion of the Mass the brand-new Pope Leo XIV celebrated with the Cardinals who had elected him the previous afternoon in May 2025: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmbTipJQtJI&list=RDCmbTipJQtJI&start_radio=1 


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