Feast of Christ the King - Last Sunday of October

O Sweet Saviour and Redeemer of mankind, Jesus Christ, who in the impenetrable designs of Thine infinite wisdom bearest with the audacity of the impious and sufferest the violence of the wicked, reserving to Thyself the sovereign right of judging the impious man and his perverse works, turn Thy merciful regard upon Thy children, who in the blindness of their hearts have turned from Thee in rebellion. With the eyes of a Father, and with the power of the sovereign King of the Universe, stretch forth Thy hand to bless and regenerate modern society, which is rebelliously turning its back upon Thee, the King of Kings, Lord of Lords. Be moved to compassion for Thy people, whom Thou hast purchased with Thy Blood, regenerated with Thy grace, and exalted with Thy love. Thou hast given them true liberty, Thou hast called them to the inheritance of Thy Father, Thou hast numbered them among Thy brethren; but in the delirium of their rebellion they have preferred the slavery of Satan, and live in abject misery, without joy, without hope.

O my Lord Jesus Christ, King of eternal glory, restorer of all things in heaven and on earth, supreme and omnipotent, who with infinite wisdom reunitest at Thy feet things scattered and dispersed; enlighten the Kings of the earth, the rulers of nations; instill Thy spirit into all civil institutions, into every form of government, into laws and armies; grant that all the powers of earth may recognize in Thee the majesty of the eternal God, the source from which all authority is derived; illuminate the nations that they may understand that Thou art the origin of rights and duties, that it is through Thee that the Kings of the earth rule, and that it is to Thee that Kings and people alike owe obedience.

O most sweet Jesus, who hast deigned to descend into this valley of tears, and to dwell with us, suffering and dying for the salvation of us sinners, and who in an excess of charity hast set up thy abode in the midst of men, hidden under the sacramental species, and who in the fullness of the Godhead, corporally present in our tabernacles, makest Thyself the food and life of our souls; oh, receive the humble but sincere and profound homage of our hearts, offered in reparation for the falling away of the rebellious. We firmly believe in Thee and all that the faith infused into our hearts by the Holy Spirit has revealed to us about Thee. We see in Thee the beginning and the end of all existing things, we adore Thee as the one true God, we wish to live only for Thee and in Thy service.

Do Thou, O Lord, save our brethren, reunite the scattered members of modern society gone astray, that we as brethren may together be one with Thee, as Thou art one with thy Father in Heaven. May Thy will be done by all and in everything. May thy Majesty shine forth on the throne of thy earthly dominion, and the world confess Thee to be the true Son of God, through whom all things were created. O Lord, do not abandon us; we are Thy children, we love Thee; recognize us still as Thy children, unworthy, yet ever thine; save us, and together with us, save Kings, Rulers, and Nations. Amen.

Saint Michael, first champion of the Kingship of Christ, pray for us.

(An Indulgence of 300 days)




To Thee, O Lord, do I turn my face. My body and my soul I commend to Thy Majesty, who hast wonderfully made all things out of nothing. Hear me, O God, Thou who art King of the Angels, Thou who receivest back the sinner, hear me. Open the ear of Thy love to my prayers, that, protected by Thy heavenly grace, I may live for Thee. Give joy to my soul which Thou hast created immortal; nourish it with the bread of angels that it may live in the contemplation of the saints. Direct me, O Lord, along Thy paths. In the morning when I rise from my sleep be Thou my guardian: look down on me as I walk. Sustain me, Thy servant, with food replenished with Thy heavenly blessing. Give my heart to drink full droughts drawn from the fount of life, that armed with the sign of Thy holy Cross, I may vanquish during the night the suggestions of the devil.

And when again the sun sheds its light on the world, may I see Thee, the true Sun of Justice, and may I devoutly offer to Thee day by day the solemn service of the Mass. Wherefore, Lord Jesus, receive the prayer of Thy servant, which I offer for the remission of the sins of my father and mother, and of my brothers and sisters who are dead, that their souls may rejoice in Thy eternal brightness. Remember not, O Lord, my past offenses, and be not angry with me for ever. Stay Thy judgments upon the offenses of my brothers, sisters, relations, and friends who are yet alive; rather in Thy love hear, and in Thy mercy spare. They ever adore Thee, the one God, through Christ our Lord.

O Holy Virgin of Virgins, aid me: O Holy Mother of God, intercede for me: Holy Mary, with all the saintly Virgins of God, who, admitted into the company of the Cherubim and Seraphim ever follow the immaculate Lamb of God rejoicing in your grace of virginity, in the midst of your gladness hear my prayer.

St. Michael, standard-bearer of God, redeem my soul with the Lord's holy Cross in the judgment day.

St. Peter, senator of the heavenly palace, chief of the Apostles, with the other holy Apostles, open to me the gates of Paradise and block up the path that leads to hell.

St. Stephen with thy crimson palm of martyrdom, and ye other holy Martyrs, obtain for me from God the robe of immortality.

By the merits of the college of Confessors may I find favor before God in heaven.

O all ye Saints, help me.

O all ye Saints, come to my aid.

O all ye Saints of God, intercede for me.

By your holy intercession may ye deign to reconcile me to God, the King of all ages, that with Him, the Prince of peace, clothed in the robe of Immortality, my flesh may desire to rise in all the glory of the new life to reign with Him for ever in Heaven. Amen.







Rise, glorious Victor, rise
Into Thy native skies,--
Assume Thy right;
And where in many a fold
The clouds are backward rolled,
Pass through those gates of gold,
And reign in light.

Enter, Incarnate God;
No feet but Thine have trod
The serpent down;
The full-voiced trumpets blow,
Wider the portals throw;
Saviour, triumphant go,
And take Thy crown.

O Lord, ascend Thy throne;
For Thou shalt rule alone,
Beside Thy Sire
And blessed Paraclete,
The Three in One complete,
Before Whose awful feet
All foes expire.


These and more prayers and hymns here.

OUR supernatural life of Divine Grace comes to us from Our Lord Jesus Christ, Head of His Mystical Body, the Catholic Church, while we continue to receive our disordered natural life from the first Adam. "For, if by one man's offence, death reigned through one: much more they who receive abundance of grace, and of the gift, and of justice, shall reign in life through one Jesus Christ" (Rom. v. 17). Our Lord is then our Head. Now St. Thomas distinguishes a twofold function of the grace of Headship, analogous to the double role exercised by the head with regard to the members of the body. "The head," he says, "has a twofold influence upon the members: an interior influence, because the head transmits to the other members the power of moving and feeling; and an exterior influence of government, because by the sense of sight and the other senses which reside in it, the head directs a man in his exterior actions." (III. P. Q. 8. a. 6) St. Thomas then goes on to remark that Christ also, by His grace of Headship, has a twofold influence upon souls: an interior influence of supernatural life, because His Humanity, united to His Divinity has the power of justification; an exterior influence by His government of His subjects. The role of justification and sanctification is that of Christ as Priest, while the second prerogative of government and direction constitutes the spiritual Kingship of Christ. We have said the "spiritual" Kingship of Christ, for we must distinguish between the spiritual and the temporal Kingship of Christ or between His Primacy in the supernatural order and His Primacy in the natural order.



To Jesus Christ then as King, Spiritual Ruler, it appertains to set before the faithful the common end they should attain and to point out to them the means of attaining it, thus guiding the exterior and visible movement of the whole mystical Body to Eternal Happiness.

To Jesus Christ as King, it belongs also to determine the proper sanction for the precepts He imposes, to reward and punish His subjects according to their deserts.

Finally, it is for Jesus Christ as King, in virtue of the work of Redemption which He must accomplish, to conquer His Kingdom and defend His faithful subjects against the enemies who strive to overthrow His reign here below. Christ's Spiritual Kingship is militant and the struggle against moral evil must go on as long as men remain here below exposed to suffering and death, to corruption and sin. Only in eternity shall the triumph be complete, by the victory of the good and the defeat of the wicked.


Spiritual Kingship comprises the Right of Intervention in Temporal Affairs.

Our Lord, as has been said, came down to restore to men the Divine Life of grace, their highest and most real life, and this mission of salvation confers on Him full power of governing in the spiritual order. But, though we have been raised to the life of grace, we must, nevertheless, continue to live our human life, and the organization demanded by this life remains always necessary. Our human or natural life must, however, be in subordination to our Divine Life, so that instead of hindering its development, it may, on the contrary, indirectly contribute thereto. Grace gives to our activity a new elevation by lifting it up to the God of Revelation, known and loved in Himself, but we have to work out our salvation in the conditions of existence imposed on us by our situation in the world and in contact with the lowly realities of daily life. The temporal order, with the rulers appointed to maintain it, subsists along with the supernatural order and the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. In both spheres authority is exercised in its proper domain.

But, because the temporal is in subordination to the spiritual and because the final end of man, the end which dominates all others, is supernatural, we must concede to the ruler in the supernatural order a right of intervention in the strictly natural sphere, a right which must be measured by the necessity or utility of maintaining and developing the Divine Life of grace in souls. The Spiritual Kingship of Christ, then, comprises the power of intervention in human affairs and, in fact, we see Our Lord in the Gospel making use of it, when, for example, He drove the traffickers from the Temple, thus proclaiming the right of God to be honoured in becoming fashion, even though that meant imposing restrictions upon the commercial liberty of men.


Temporal Kingship of Christ.


The Church's Participation in the Spiritual Kingship of Christ.

The title makes it clear that the Temporal Kingship of Christ has not to be considered here. The mission of the Catholic Church, supernatural and supra-national, is the spiritual one of the outpouring of the Divine Life. The Church has not received purely temporal Royalty from her Divine Founder, so it is here question of Spiritual Kingship only. But the Spiritual Kingship of Our Lord could not be exercised in an efficacious manner without a visible, permanent intermediary, capable of giving to souls at all times and in all places the directions needed for the safeguard and diffusion of the Divine Life. This mission has been confided only to the Catholic Church. Accordingly, in order to form an adequate idea of the Spiritual Kingship of Christ, we must consider its radiation down the centuries in the Church and through the Church in the world. The Pope and the Bishops are the representatives of Christ, the lieutenants of His Spiritual Royalty. They have the charge of holding up before the world the supernatural ideal of life to be lived by all men and laying down the laws and precepts to be observed, in order that that life may not be lost: to them it belongs to regulate the distribution of all the means confided to the Church by Our Lord for the development of the Divine Life, to establish fitting sanctions for all offences that jeopardize the interests of that life, and, finally, to carryon the struggle against the powers of evil by every form of missionary effort, following the example of Christ.

Here we must carefully distinguish between the Church's participation in Our Lord's Priesthood and her participation in His Kingship. "The interior influence of grace can come from Christ alone, Whose Humanity united to the Divinity has the power of justifying. But the influence which Our Lord exercises by His exterior government can be communicated to others. Those others are the heads of the Church ... they are heads because they take Christ's place" (Summ. Theol., III. P. Q. 8. a. 6).

In other words, when the Church governs in the name of Christ she is truly a proper and principal, though subordinate, cause of her government. Thus, as Spouse of Christ and True Regent of souls on earth, she has the right that we should recognize her authority and should bow down before her. When, on the other hand, through her priesthood and the Sacraments, she communicates grace to us, she is in this, only the instrument used by Christ to vivify our souls. It must, however, be remembered at once that, since the Sacred Humanity of Christ is immediately united to the Word, His Royalty and His Priesthood receive thereby a fullness, a universality and a perfection which can be participated in by the Church only in a limited fashion. St. Thomas points out that Christ rules the men of all places, times, and states, while the heads of the Church either govern only in certain places for a limited time as Bishops, or without limit as to place, but only for a limited time as is the case with the Pope, the rule of both Pope and Bishops being limited to those living on the earth (III. P. Q. 8. a. 6). Besides, Christ commands by His own authority, for all things are subject to Him. The Rulers of the Church have only the authority communicated to them by Christ.

The influence, then, which Christ exercises on the world, by His Priesthood and His Kingship, surpasses in extent and compass, even here below, the influence of the visible Church. All men, St. Thomas teaches (III. P. Q. 8. a. 3. c. et ad I), belong to Christ, even though they be heretics or pagans, and on them Christ can act in an invisible manner, by providing them with the help they need, in order to be converted, by even raising them to the Divine Life, if their invincible ignorance keeps them outside the one True Church. The Church always remains the centre from which the Divine Life, which is found in its fullness in Christ, radiates throughout the world. By right the Church is universal and her influence here below ever seeks to be co-extensive with that of her Divine Head and Founder. Men are subject to the Priesthood and Kingship of Christ while yet outside the Church, but in order to reap the full benefit, for the spiritual life, of this subjection to Our Lord, one must be fully incorporated into Christ, in accordance with the order He Himself has established. One must be a child of the Church, to which He has confided the infinite riches of the Redemption.

We have previously seen that the Spiritual Kingship of Christ comprises the right of intervention in temporal affairs, in so far as the interests of the Divine Life of souls demand it. Charged by Our Lord with the continuance of His mission here below, the Church, though without direct power in temporal affairs as such, has, nevertheless, by her participation in the Kingship of Christ, the right of intervening in temporal affairs in order to safeguard the interests of the Divine Life. This is the Divine origin of what has been usually called, since the time of St. Robert Bellarmine and Suarez, the Indirect Power of the Pope.

Here it may be well to open a parenthesis concerning the Temporal Sovereignty of the Pope in his own State, so as to preclude any confusion in minds between this Temporal Sovereignty and the Indirect Power of which we are speaking. The Temporal Sovereignty of the Pope in the Vatican State is completely different from his Indirect Power in temporal affairs. It is, however, a consequence of the Pope's participation in the Spiritual Kingship of Christ as His Vicar on earth. The Temporal Sovereignty of the Pope in the Papal States or in the Vatican City is the condition by which alone in normal fashion obstacles and hindrances are removed to the enjoyment of that full immunity bestowed on him by Our Divine Lord when He made St. Peter His Vicar on earth, with the charge of spiritually governing the whole Church. That particular Temporal Sovereignty is the normal condition which Divine Providence has provided for the exercise of the Spiritual Kingship of Our Lord's Vicar. Accordingly, the Pope, who is supreme judge, the world over, directly of spiritual matters, indirectly of temporal affairs, by reason of the spiritual interests involved, is also temporal and civil ruler of a small State. In the latter capacity he stands in a special relation to his civil subjects.