Chair of Unity Octave VII

Chair of Unity Octave VII

January 24, Seventh Day of the Chair of Unity Octave - for the conversion of Vatican II Catholics and all who reject the true sacraments back to Tradition

   O Mary, Mother of mercy and Refuge of sinners, we beseech thee to look with pitying eyes upon the miserable heretics and apostates who wrought and continue the Vatican II sect and all cafeterial Catholics as well as those who reject the true Sacraments Thou instituted. Do thou, who art the Seat of Wisdom, illuminate their minds, wretchedly involved in the darkness of ignorance and sin, that they may know the true one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church to be the only true Church of Jesus Christ, out of which no sanctity, or even hope of salvation can be found. Humble their proud minds and hearts, that grace may enter, for God despises the proud, and gives His grace only to the humble and to the meek. Obtain for them the grace to accept, with humble and childlike faith, every truth of the holy Catholic Faith. Confuse not their hearts and open their minds that they may save their souls for Thy divine Son's vicars have decreed dogmatically that "outside the Church there is no salvation." Abandon them not. Come to their rescue lest they be swallowed into the lies wrought by the mystery of iniquity.

(Three Hail Mary's)

Let us Pray.

    O Mother of Sorrows, standing at the foot of the Cross, with trusting hearts we turn to thee, in these hostile and unbelieving tumultuous times, to implore thine intercession on behalf of those who are separated from the one true Church of Thy Divine Son, Jesus Christ, especially those who have been led by the devil into the heretical sects wrought by Vatican II. By the clear knowledge thou dost possess of the bitter sufferings of our Crucified Redeemer and the shedding of His most Precious Blood, the Price of our salvation, we offer thee our supplications to obtain the grace of the True Catholic Faith for those who are outside the one true Fold, that so the sheep who are scattered may return under the guidance of the Good Shepherd and bring us a true Pope to whom we will willingly and humbly submit to in all obedience as a true Vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

(Three Hail Mary's)

PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH UNITY OCTAVE

Antiphon: "That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me and I in Thee; that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that Thou has sent Me." (John 17: 21)

V. I say unto thee that thou art Peter
R. And upon this Rock I will build My Church.

Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, Who saidst unto Thine Apostles: Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; regard not our sins, but the faith of Thy Church, and vouchsafe to grant unto Her that peace and unity which are agreeable to Thy Will. Who livest and reignest God forever and ever. Amen.
 An indulgence of 300 days during the octave of prayers for the unity of the Church, from the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter in Rome to the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. A Plenary Indulgence on the usual conditions at the end of the devout exercise.

Saint Timothy, Bishop & Martyr

Saint Timothy was a convert of Saint Paul, born at Lystra in Asia Minor. His mother was a daughter of Israel, but his father was a pagan, and though Timothy had read the Scriptures from his childhood, he had never been circumcised. On the arrival of Saint Paul at Lystra the youthful Timothy, with his mother and grandmother, eagerly embraced the faith. Seven years later, when the Apostle again visited the country, the boy had grown into manhood. His good heart, his austerities and zeal had won the esteem of all around him, and holy men were prophesying great things of the fervent youth. Saint Paul at once saw his fitness for the work of an evangelist, and Timothy was ordained a priest. From that time on he was the constant and much-beloved fellow-worker of the Apostle.

In company with Saint Paul he visited the cities of Asia Minor and Greece, once hastening on ahead as a trusted messenger, at another time lingering behind to confirm in the faith a recently founded church. Eventually he was made the first Bishop of Ephesus; and there he received the two epistles of his master which bear his name, the first written from Macedonia and the second from Rome, where Saint Paul from his prison expresses his longing desire to see his dearly beloved son, once more, if possible, before his death. It is not certain whether Saint Timothy arrived in Rome in time, but devotion to Saint Timothy has always been strong in Rome, which seems to argue for his presence at the martyrdom of his spiritual father.

Saint Timothy was of a tender and affectionate disposition, and certainly found his role in the idolatrous city of Ephesus difficult to sustain. Saint Paul, when he writes to Timothy, then a tested servant of God and a bishop advancing in years, addresses him as he would his own child, and seems most anxious about his forcefulness in his demanding role. His disciple's health was fragile, and Saint Paul counsels him to take a little wine for his digestion. Saint Timothy is the Angel of the Church of Ephesus of the Apocalypse, its bishop whom Our Lord, too, exhorted to remember his original faith and piety.

Not many years after the death of Saint Paul, Timothy, who had surely profited from these counsels, won a martyr's crown at Ephesus, when on a feast day of the goddess Diana, whose temple stood in that city, he entered into the ungovernable crowd to calm it, exhorting these souls, deprived of the light of truth, to renounce vain worship and embrace Christianity. Wild with idolatrous passion, a pagan struck down the bishop of the Christians, thus freeing him to join his beloved spiritual father in the realm of the Blessed.

Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler's Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894); The Holy Bible: Old and New Testaments.

Read the Encyclical of Pius XI Ad Catholici Sacerdotii - On the Catholic priesthood

Ad Catholici Sacerdotii - Pope Pius XI on the priesthood