Church unity Octave Prayer: January 18th to 25th
by VP
Posted on Saturday January 17, 2026 at 12:00AM in Church Unity
Church unity Octave.
The
Church Unity Octave is observed every year from the feast of St.
Peter's Chair, January 18, to that of the conversion of St. Paul,
January 25.
It was approved and blessed by the late Pope Pius X in
1909. His Holiness Pope Benedict XV, by a Papal Brief, dated February
15, 1916, extended its observance of the Universal Church enriching it
with Indulgences.
(Catholic Missions Vol 13-14 January 1919).
Daily Intentions:
Jan 18. Feast of the Chair of St. Peter: For the return of all
the "other sheep" to the one fold of St. Peter, the one Shepherd. (For
the conversion of all those in error).
Jan 19. For the return of the Orthodox and Eastern Churches under papal
authority.
Jan 20. For the submission of Anglicans to the Authority of the Vicar of Christ.
Jan 21. For the return of European Protestants that they may find their way back to Holy Church.
Jan 22. That Christians in America may become one in Communion with the Chair of St. Peter.
Jan 23. For the return to the sacraments of all lapsed Catholics.
Jan 24. For the Conversion of the Jews.
Jan 25.
Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul: Missionary Conquest of World (For
the Conversion of Muslims and the faithful of other religions)
(Form of prayer decreed by Pope Benedict XV: to be recited Daily during the Octave. + One decade (at least) of the Rosary for this particular intention, Holy Communion if possible.)
Ant. 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.
℣. I say to thee, that thou art Peter,
℟. And upon this rock I will build my Church.
- Let us pray: Lord Jesus Christ, Who didst say to Thine Apostles: peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, look not upon my sins, but upon the faith of Thy Church; and vouchsafe unto Her that peace and unity which is agreeable to Thy will: Who livest and reignest God forever and ever. Amen.
- Lord Jesus, most gracious savior of the world, we humbly beg of Thee by Thy most Sacred heart, that all the sheep now wandering astray may be converted to Thee, the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls: Who livest and reignest through all eternity. Amen (Pius X, 26 Oct., 1905)
Source: The Church Unity Octave, 1939 American Ecclesiastical Review, Volume 100
"Peace in Unity:
(...)
We possess today a prayer movement for Church Unity, the purpose of
which is to gather into the one true Church all those who have
unfortunately withdrawn from the Catholic religion and to unite them
against the prevailing forces of Liberalism and Materialism. For, as His
Holiness Pope Benedict XV remarked in an Apostolic Brief dated Feb. 25,
1916, "in the Unity of Faith the foremost characteristic of the Truth
shines forth, and it is thus that the Apostle Paul exhorts the Ephesians
to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, by
proclaiming that 'there is one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism." Noting the
approval extended to this Octave of Prayer by the Catholic Hierarchy,
he asserted that “with a glad heart, therefore, we have heard from
the Society which is called 'of the Atonement,' established in New York,
that prayers have been proposed to be recited from the Feast of the
Chair of Blessed Peter at Rome to the Feast of the Conversion of St.
Paul, in order that this aim of Unity might be obtained from the Lord
and at the same time we rejoice that these prayers, blessed by Pope Pius
the Tenth, of recent memory, and approved by the Bishops of America,
have been circulated far and wide through the United States."
(...)
Our
generation is reaping the woeful consequences of an incredulity which
has succeeded in excluding Christ from modern life, especially from
public life. The deep spiritual crisis that has overthrown the sound
principles of private and public morality is the result of cleavage from
the Church in the course of centuries and the divorcing of civil power
from every kind of dependence on a Supreme Being. Cut off from the
age-old teaching authority of the Catholic Church, many of the separated
brethren have gone so far as to overthrow the central dogma of
Christianity, the Divinity of the Saviour, and have hastened thereby the
advance of spiritual and moral decay.
Now, in this hour of
perhaps irrevocable decisions, the Church may well be envisioned as the
voice of one crying in the wilderness, appealing to her wandering
children to be united with her in the unity of faith and worship, so
that their return to the Christian way of life might be a bulwark
against the menace of modern pagan teaching. She alone, in the words of
St. Augustine, "is the holy Church, the one Church, the true Church, the Church which strives against all heresies."
She alone fully recognizes the widespread atheistic and anti-Christian
tendency rampant in the world, threatening to destroy all the ancient
Christian institutions, the life of which consists in a supernatural
principle, and to erect on their ruins and with their remains an
illusory millennium of universal happiness, a new order which would rest
on the quicksands of changeable and ephemeral standards contingent upon
the selfish interests of groups and individuals.
Already,
through the mysterious workings of divine Providence, this invitation
extended by the Church has received long awaited welcome from many who
now perceive the inability of all human efforts to replace the laws of
God and the unifying and elevating influence of Christ's love. But this
is not enough. For, however much this hour of disillusionment has become
an hour of grace, "a passage of the Lord” for some, sincere Catholics
must humbly recognize their grave responsibility to work and pray that
the tireless and salutary occupation of the Church in the spiritual and
religious re-education of mankind might bear fruit in the
reestablishment of the Christian heritage over the whole world. On the
minds of all those who seek refuge from the vortex of error and
anti-Christian movements they should impress the words Our Holy Father
addressed to the College of Cardinals on June 2, 1944. “How much
more potent and efficacious would be the influence of Christian thought
and Christian life on the moral sub-structure of the future plans for
peace and social reconstruction, if there were not this vast division
and dispersal of religious confessions, that in the course of time have
detached themselves from Mother Church! Who, today, can fail to
recognize what substance of faith, what a genuine power of resistance to
anti-religious influence is lost in so many groups as a result of
separation."
As never before, the collaboration of the
laity in the Apostolate of the Hierarchy must have as its central theme
Christ resplendent in His Divine Kingship, if He is to "grant the gifts
of peace and unity to all nations." For “in the recognition of the royal
prerogatives of Christ and in the return of individuals and of society
to the law of His truth and of His love lies the only way of salvation."
If Christian thought is to succeed in maintaining and supporting the
work of restoration in individual, social and international life, then
all who are working for a plan that does not conflict with the religious
and moral content of Christian civilization must acknowledge that the
Church which Christ founded on earth is the infallible spokesman on
faith and morals for the whole world. For the Catholic Church alone
possesses, in her infallible pronouncements, the fullness of the
principles of Christian morality in all its ramifications. Because of
the special assistance of the Holy Spirit promised to the Apostles and
their successors, the episcopate united to the Roman Pontiff, she alone
teaches men to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded.
Further, only the Church possesses, from her very institution, a visible
unity in doctrine, government and worship. Therefore, only she can
establish an organic unity of all men-a supernatural union based on an
all-embracing love deeply felt and practiced, rather than a unity which
is exclusively human, external, superficial, and by that very fact,
weak.
One of the most efficacious means for assuring a just
and lasting peace is a Catholic Unity of all those who, seeking
brotherly communion in Christ, humbly submit themselves and obey the
Vicar of Christ as teacher and ruler of the Church. That is the end of
the Prayer Octave for Church Unity founded by Father Paul James Francis,
S.A., in 1908. It seeks to restore to God the honor denied Him for so
many centuries and to acquire for men the fullness of the Christian
heritage which alone can determine the most firm foundation of true
peace, that interior peace which cannot be found except by coming close
to the spiritual light of Bethlehem's cave.
Catholics especially
must unite with Christ who prayed to His Heavenly Father "that they all
may be one, even 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." And
it is incumbent on them to make known the observance of this Octave to
all others who sincerely seek eternal salvation, the promotion of the
temporal welfare of peoples, their true prosperity, order, and
tranquillity. During this Church Unity Octave, from Jan. 18 to Jan. 25,
all should pray especially that God the Father may send His Holy Spirit
to direct and guide statesmen, that He might inspire their thoughts,
their feelings and deliberations, making them spiritually and materially
vigorous and firm against obstacles, mistrust, and peril, so that as a
result of their deliberations, a new order under the patronage of Christ
the King may be established which will lead many wanderers back to the
Unity of supernatural faith and love as found in His Mystical Body. For,
says St. Ambrose, "great is the glory of justice; for she, existing
rather for the good of others than of self, is an aid to the bond of
union and fellowship amongst us. She holds so high a place that she has
all things laid under her authority ... but the Church, as it were, is
the outward form of Justice, she is the common right of all. For all in
common she prays, for all in common she works, in the temptation of all
she is tried ... For this reason, Paul has made Christ to be foundation,
so that we may build upon Him the works of Justice."
