From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
The Kingdom of Heaven—Holy Church—is seen bringing forth out of her treasure “things new and old.” Although she can never add new dogmas to the deposit of Faith entrusted to her, as the ages go by she is seen understanding more perfectly and explaining more fully those treasures in her keeping. She is a living body, not a statue, and she can develop, though she can never change her nature. Hence, guided by the Holy Spirit of him who has promised to be with her not merely for a few centuries but unto the end of the world, she defines or emphasizes certain points of doctrine as she sees fit, considering the needs of the times. We have an example in the institution of the feast of the Kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ by the Sovereign Pontiff, Pope Pius XI, in the jubilee year 1925, and explained to the faithful in the Encyclical Quas Primas.
Christians have ever hailed our divine Lord as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It was as a King that the representatives of the Eastern world came to adore him in the manger; it was as a King, albeit not knowing what he did, that the official representative of the Western world lifted him up upon the Cross. The patriarchs and prophets of the old dispensation foretold his royalty; he spoke constantly of his kingdom: when asked plainly whether he were in truth a king by the representative of Cæsar, he acknowledged that such indeed he was, though of a kingdom not of this world.
His Kingship is founded upon the ineffable hypostatic union. It is spiritual, and concerned with spiritual things. It is opposed to none other than to that of Satan, and to the powers of darkness. Christ is King over angels and men; King over men’s hearts and wills; his Kingship demands of its subjects a spirit of detachment from riches and earthly things, and a spirit of gentleness. They must hunger and thirst after justice and, more than this, they must deny themselves and carry the cross.[1]
Yet though his is a spiritual kingdom, opposed to no just earthly polity, “it would be a grave error to say that Christ has no authority whatever in civil affairs, since by virtue of the absolute empire over all creatures committed to him by the Father, all things are in his power. All men, whether collectively or individually, are under the dominion of Christ. In him is the salvation of the individual, in him is the salvation of society."[2]
To-day we sadly behold “a world undone,” largely paganized in principles and outlook, and, in recent years, in one country even glorying in the name “pagan.” At the best, governments mostly ignore God; and at the worst, openly fight against him, as we of to-day are witnessing in the Old World and in the New. Even the statesmen’s well-meant efforts to find a remedy for present ills and, above all, to secure world peace, prove futile because, whereas peace is from Christ, and possible only in the Kingdom of Christ, his name is never mentioned throughout their deliberations or their documents. Christ is kept out of the State schools and seats of higher education; and the rising generations seem to be taught anything and everything save to know, love and serve him. Art and literature all too frequently reflect the same tendencies.
And since the spirit of evil reigns inevitably wherever the spirit of Christ has ceased to reign, in public and in private men are flouting the moral laws of God, and some of the worst abominations of ancient paganism are becoming matters of every-day life. Moreover, be it remembered, modern paganism is worse than that of the ancient world, in that the former knows what it does as the latter did not. There is now an intense, positive hatred of Jesus Christ in the militant atheist, which differs in kind from the attitude of the fiercest Roman or Eastern persecutor: “If I had not come and spoken to them ... if I had not done among them the works that no other man hath done, they would not have sin: but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.”[3]
Ever as practical as she is supernatural, the Church is not content with merely deploring the evil, nor even with counteracting it by sound teaching. She would also make definite reparation to the divine majesty thus denied and defied; to him whose royalty is slighted and insulted. Something must be done by those who, in a measure, understand and love, in order to atone for those who do not. “To repair the crime of lèse-divinity, which denies God’s rights over the human society whose author he is, we must exalt Jesus Christ as King over all individuals, families, and peoples. If his universal royalty be proclaimed and his reign in society recognized, one of the principal evils of the modern world—the secularizing of public and private life—will be attacked at its roots.”[4] Hence we have the special exhortation of the Vicar of Christ, and the institution of the feast of this divine Kingship.
To this end nothing would serve better than the institution of a special feast in honour of the Kingship of Christ. For people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion, far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any pronouncement, however weighty, of the teaching of the Church. Such pronouncements usually reach only a few, and those the more learned among the faithful; feasts reach them all; the former speak but once, the latter speak every year—in fact for ever. The Church’s teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both mind and heart, and have a salutary effect upon the whole of man’s nature. . . . We have commanded its observance on a Sunday, in order that not only the clergy may perform their duty by saying Mass and reciting the Office, but that the laity too, free from their daily tasks, may in a spirit of holy joy give ample testimony of their obedience and subjection to Christ . . . that they may so order their lives as to be worthy, faithful, and obedient subjects of the Divine King.[5]
MASS
Introit
Dignus est Agnus qui occisus est, accipere virtutem, et divinitatem, et sapientiam, et fortitudinem, et honorem. Ipsi gloria et imperium in sæcula sæculorum. Deus, judicium tuum Regi da, et justitiam tuam Filio Regis. Gloria Patri. Dignus.
The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power and divinity and wisdom and strength and honour: to him be glory and empire for ever and ever. Give to the King, O God, thy judgement, and to the King’s Son thy justice. Glory be to the Father. The Lamb.
Collect
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui in dilecto Filio tuo, universorum Rege, omnia instaurare voluisti: concede propitius; ut cunctæ familiæ Gentium, peccati vulnere disgregatæ, ejus suavissimo subdantur imperio: Qui tecum.
Almighty everlasting God, who in thy beloved Son, King of the whole world, didst will to restore all things: grant in thy mercy, that all kindreds of the nations, torn asunder by the wound of sin, may be subjected to the sweet yoke of his rule: Who liveth.
Commemoration is made of the occurring Sunday.
Epistle
Lectio Epistolæ beati Pauli Apostoli ad Colossenses.
Cap. i.
Fratres: Gratias agimus Deo Patri, qui dignos nos fecit in partem sortis sanctorum in lumine, qui eripuit nos de potestate tenebrarum, et transtulit in regnum Filii dilectionis sue, in quo habemus redemptionem per sanguinem ejus, remissionem peccatorum. Qui est imago Dei invisibilis, primogenitus omnis creature; quoniam in ipso condita sunt universa in cœlis et in terra, visibilia et invisibilia, sive throni, sive dominationes, sive principatus, sive potestates: omnia per ipsum et in ipso creata sunt: et ipse est ante omnes, et omnia in ipso constant. Et ipse est caput corporis Ecclesie, qui est principium, primogenitus ex mortuis: ut sit in omnibus ipse primatum tenens; quia in ipso complacuit omnem plenitudinem habitare; et per eum reconciliare omnia, in ipsum, pacificans per sanguinem crucis ejus, sive que in terris, sive que in cœlis sunt, in Christo Jesu Domino nostro.
The reading of the Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Colossians.
Ch. i.
Brethren: Giving thanks to God the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love: in whom we have redemption through his blood, the remission of sins; who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for in him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible; whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities or powers. All things were created by him and in him. And he is before all: and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may hold the primacy: because in him, it hath well pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell: and through him to reconcile all things unto himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, both as to the things on earth and the things that are in heaven, in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Gradual
Dominabitur a mari usque ad mare, et a flumine usque ad terminos orbis terrarum.
℣. Et adorabunt eum omnes reges terræ; omnes gentes servient ei.
Alleluia, alleluia. ℣. Potestas ejus, potestas æterna, quæ non auferetur: et regnum ejus quod non corrumpetur. Alleluia.
He shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.
℣. And all kings of the earth shall adore him: all nations shall serve him.
Alleluia, alleluia. ℣. His power is an everlasting power, that shall not be taken away: and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed. Alleluia.
In votive Masses after Septuagesima, instead of the Alleluia and its ℣., there is said:
Tract
Ipse invocabit me, Pater meus es tu: Deus meus, et susceptor salutis meæ. ℣. Et ego primogenitum ponam ilium: excelsum præ regibus terræ. ℣. Et ponam in sæculum sæculi semen ejus: et thronum ejus sicut dies cœli.
He shall cry out to me: Thou art my Father, my God, and the support of my salvation. ℣. And I will make him my firstborn, high above the kings of the earth. ℣. And I will make his seed to endure for evermore, and his throne as the days of heaven.
In Paschal time, omitting the Gradual, there is said: Alleluia, alleluia. Potestas ejus, etc., as above; then:
Alleluia. ℣. Habet in vestimento et in femore suo scriptum: Rex regum, et Dominus dominantium. Alleluia.
Alleluia, ℣. He hath on his garment and on his thigh written: King of kings and Lord of lords. Alleluia.
Gospel
Sequentia sancti Evangelii secundum Joannem.
Cap. xviii.
In illo tempore: Dixit Pilatus ad Jesum: Tu es Rex Judæorum? Respondit Jesus: A temetipso hoc dicis, an alii dixerunt tibi de me? Respond it Pilatus: Numquid ego Judæus sum? Gens tua, et pontifices tradiderunt te mihi: quid fecisti? Respondit Jesus: Regnum meum non est de hoc mundo. Siex hoc mundo esset regnum meum, ministri mei utique decertarent ut non traderer Judæis: nunc autem regnum meum non est hinc. Dixit itaque ei Pilatus: Ergo Rex es tu? Respondit Jesus: Tu dicis quia Rex sum ego. Ego in hoc natus sum, et ad hoc veni in mundum, ut testimonium perhibeam ventati: omnis qui est ex ventate, audit vocem meam.
Sequel of the Holy Gospel according to John.
Ch. xviii.
At that time: Pilate said to Jesus: Art thou the King of the Jews? Jesus answered: Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or have others told it thee of me? Pilate answered: Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee up to me. What hast thou done? Jesus answered: My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now my kingdom is not from hence. Pilate therefore said to him: Art thou a king, then? Jesus answered: Thou sayest that I am a king. For this was I bom, and for this came I into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice.
Offertory
Postula a me, et dabo tibi Gentes hereditatem tuam, et possessionem tuam terminos terræ.
Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Secret
Hostiam tibi, Domine, humanæ reconciliationis offerimus: præsta quæsumus; ut quem sacrificiis præsentibus immolamus, ipse cunctis gentibus unitatis et pacis dona eoncedat, Jesus Christus, Filius tuus, Dominus noster: Qui tecum.
We offer thee, O Lord, the victim of man's reconciliation; grant, we beseech thee, that he whom we immolate in these present sacrifices may himself bestow on all nations the gifts of unity and peace, Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord: Who liveth.
Commemoration is made of the occurring Sunday.
Preface
Vere dignum et justum est, æquum et salutare, nos tibi semper et ubique gratias agere: Domine sancte, Pater omnipotens, æeterne Deus: Qui unigenitum Filium tuum, Dominum nostrum Jeeum Christum, Saoerdotem æternum et universorum Regem, oleo exsultationis unxisti: ut, seipsum in ara crucis hostiam immaculatam et pacificam offerens, redemptionis humanæ sacramenta perageret: et suo subjectis imperio omnibus creaturis, æternum et universale regnum, immensæ tuæ traderet Majestati. Regnum veritatis et vitæ: regnum sanctitatis et gratiæ: regnum justitiæ, amoris et pacis. Et ideo ...
It is truly meet and just, right and availing unto salvation, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to thee, O holy Lord, Father Almighty, everlasting God: Who didst anoint with the oil of gladness thine onlybegotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ, eternal priest and universal King: that, offering himself a spotless victim and peaceoffering upon the altar of the Cross, he should complete the mysteries of man’s redemption; and all creatures having been subjected to his sway, should deliver to thy infinite majesty an eternal and universal kingdom; a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace. And therefore. . .
Communion
Sedebit Dominus Rex in seternum: Dominus benedicei populo suo in pace.
The Lord shall sit King for ever: the Lord will bless his people with peace.
Postcommunion
Immortalitatis alimoniam consecuti, quæsumus Domine: ut, qui sub Christi Regis vexillis militare gloriamur, cum ipso, in cœlesti sede, jugiter regnare possimus: Qui tecum.
Having received the food of immortality, we beseech thee, O Lord: that as we glory in fighting under the standard of Christ the King, so we may be able to reign with him in his heavenly abode: Who liveth.
Commemoration is made of the occurring Sunday, the Gospel of which is read at the end of Mass.
SECOND VESPERS
Ps. 109, Dixit Dominus
Ant. 1. Pacificus vocabitur, et thronus ejus erit firmissimus in perpetuum.
Ant. 1. He shall be called the Peaceful One, and his throne shall be firmly established for ever.
Ps. 110, Confitebor tibi
Ant. 2. Regnum ejus regnum sempiternum est, et omnes reges servient ei et obedient.
Ant. 2. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all kings shall serve him and obey him.
Ps. 111, Beatus vir
Ant. 3. Ecce Vir Oriens nomen ejus: sedebit et dominabitur, et loquetur pacem Gentibus.
Ant. 3. Behold a Man, the Orient is his name; he shall sit and rule, and shall speak peace unto the Gentiles.
Ps. 112, Laudate pueri
Ant. 4. Dominus judex noster, Dominus legifer noster: Dominus Rex noster, ipse salvabit nos.
Ant. 4. The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver: the Lord is our King, he will save us.
Ps. 116, Laudate Dominum
Ant. 5. Ecce dedi te in lucem Gentium, ut sis salus mea usque ad extremum terræ.
Ant. 5. Behold, I have given thee for a light of the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth.
Little Chapter
Col. i.
Fratres: Gratias agimus Deo Patri, qui dignos nos fecit in partem sortis sanctorum in lumine, qui eripuit nos de potestate tenebrarum, et transtulit in regnum Filii delectionis suæ.
Brethren: We give thanks to God the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love.
Hymn
Te sæculorum Principem,
Te, Christe, Regem Gentium,
Te mentium, Te cordium
Unum fatemur arbitrum.
Scelesta turba clamitat
Regnare Christum nolumus:
Te nos ovantes omnium
Regem supremum dicimus.
O Christe, Princeps Pacifer
Mentes rebelles subjice,
Tuoque amore devios
Ovile in unum congrega.
Ad hoc cruenta ab arbore
Pendes apertis brachiis,
Diraque fossum cuspide
Cor igne flagrans exhibes.
Ad hoc in aris abderis
Vini dapisque imagine,
Fundens salutem filiis
Transverberato pectore.
Te nationum Præsides
Honore tollant publico,
Colant magistri, judices,
Leges et artes exprimant.
Submissa regum fulgeant
Tibi dicata insignia:
Mitique sceptro patriam
Domosque subde civium.
Jesu, tibi sit gloria,
Qui sceptra mundi temperas,
Cum Patre, et almo Spiritu,
In sempiterna sæcula.
Amen.
Ruler of all from heaven’s high throne,
O Christ, our King ere time began,
We kneel before thee, Lord, to own
Thy empire o’er the heart of man.
While bands of shameless men refuse
The homage due to Christ their Lord,
We own thee sovereign Lord of all.
The King by heaven and earth adored.
O Prince of peace, O Christ, subdue
Those rebel hearts, thy peace restore;
Into thy sheep-fold lead anew
Thy scattered sheep, to stray no more.
For this upon the tree of shame,
Thy body hung, with arms spread wide,
The spear revealed the heart of flame
That burned within thy sacred side.
For this our altars here are spread
With mystic feast of bread and wine,
Still thy redeeming blood is shed
From that sore-stricken heart of thine.
May heads of nations fear thy name
And spread thy honour through their lands,
Our nation’s laws, our arts proclaim
The beauty of thy just commands.
Let kings the crown and sceptre hold
As pledge of thy supremacy;
And thou all lands, all tribes enfold
In one fair realm of charity.
Jesu, to thee be honour done,
Who rulest all in equity
With Father, Spirit, ever One,
From age to age eternally.
Amen.
℣. Multiplicabitur ejus imperium.
℟. Et pacis non erit finis.
℣. His empire shall be multiplied.
℟. And there shall be no end of peace.
Antiphon of the Magnificat
Habet in vestimento et in femore suo scriptum: Rex regum, et Dominus dominantium. Ipsi gloria et imperium, in sæcula sæculorum.
He hath on his garment and on his thigh written: King of kings and Lord of lords. To him be glory and empire, for ever and ever.
Commemoration is made of the occurring Sunday.
[1] Quas Primas, 13, Encyclical of Pope Pius XI, Dec. 11, 1925.
[2] Quas Primas, 17.
[3] John xv. 22, 24.
[4] L'Amour de Dieu et de la Croix de Jesus, P. Garrigou-Lagrange, O. P.
[5] Quas Primas, 21.