King of the Church

“Jesus Christ is King of all countries, of all men; so, we must remain in, and profess this Catholic Faith. And we, personally, are very happy to celebrate this great Feast of Jesus Christ, the King, because we have this Catholic belief in the Kingship of Jesus Christ over the whole world, the universal, social Kingship of Jesus Christ. We need to do everything possible to extend this Kingdom of Jesus Christ in our souls, in our bodies, in our families, in our countries. We must extend the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in our minds by the prac­tice of the Catholic Faith. The Catholic Faith is the obedience to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in our souls. We must extend this Kingdom of Jesus Christ in our wills, by following the laws of Jesus Christ, and in our families, so that He rules all the Catholic faithful.

We must recognize the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and we must also labor to extend the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in our countries. You know that in Protestant countries, the Protestant religion is ac­knowledged as the public religion. For example, in Norway and Sweden the public religion is the Protestant religion. Why, then, do Catholics not have the same rights in Catholic countries? It is extraordinary. How is it possible that the Vatican has asked Catholic countries not to profess them­selves, publicly, Catholic, but only privately? That is incredible. I told this to Pope John Paul II in my audience with him [1978]. That isn’t Catholic teach­ing. The teaching of the Catholic Church is that we must do all in our power to extend the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the social Kingdom of Jesus Christ. So, by this change in the Church, many Catholic countries are abandoning the law of Jesus Christ ­Christian law. The law permitting abortion and contraception is a law opposed to Catholic families. We must pray, my dear brethren, we must pray and ask God, by the intercession of the Blessed Vir­gin Mary, that the Kingdom of Jesus Christ will return, will come back in our cities, in our countries.

In heaven, Jesus Christ is King and we pray in the Our father that “Thy kingdom come.” That is a true Catholic prayer.

I hope that you are happy to have taken the decision to remain true Catholics because this is the aim of our Society, of our reaction against the errors of the Conciliar Church. Our reaction is only a Catholic reaction. There is no other explanation for our difficulties with modern Rome. It is because we have taken this decision to remain true Catholics, to keep the true Catholic Faith. We have never changed and cannot change because the Catholic Faith is always the same. During centuries and centuries, the Catholic Faith did not change. It is those who change the Catholic Faith who are the real schismatics, who are heretics. Not we. With the grace of God, we remain true Catholics. We keep all the articles of the Creed, all the seven Sacraments, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass without any change. That is the will of God, of Jesus Christ. That is the true Kingdom of Jesus Christ in our souls, in our families.”

~Archbishop Lefebvre – Oct. 29, 1989 – Dublin, Ireland

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An eye-opening video of a priest, suffering from the tyranny that the enemies of Christ inflict upon the children of the Church.

The origin of the Feast of Christ the King

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The King of Heaven rightfully deserves to reign gloriously over the Church and the world.

http://sspx.org/en/news-events/news/liturgy-christ-king-all-kings-shall-adore-him-all-nations-shall-serve-him

A summary of the instiution of the feast of Christ the King by Pope Pius XI, and its importance in today’s environment.

In his Encyclical of December 11, 1925, Pope Pius XI denounced the great modern heresy of secularism. It refuses to recognize the rights of God and His Christ over persons and over society itself, as though God did not exist.

The Holy Father thus instituted the feast of Christ the King to be a public, social and official declaration of the royal rights of Jesus, as God the Creator, as The Word Incarnate, and as Redeemer. This feast makes these rights to be known and recognized, in a way most suitable to man and to society by the sublimest acts of religion, particularly by Holy Mass. In fact, the end of the Holy Sacrifice is the acknowledgment of God’s complete dominion over us, and our complete dependence on Him.

The Holy Father expressed his wish that this feast should be celebrated towards the end of the liturgical year, on the last Sunday of October, as the consummation of all the mysteries by which Jesus has established His royal powers and nearly on the eve of All Saints, where He already realizes them in part in being “the crown of all saints”; until He shall be the crown of all those on earth whom He saves by the application of the merits of His Passion in the Mass (Secret).

The end of the Eucharist, says the Catechism of the Council of Trent, is “to form one sole mystic body of all the faithful” and so to draw them in the worship which Christ, king-adorer, as priest and victim, rendered in a bloody manner on the cross and now renders, in an unbloody manner, on the stone altar of our churches and on the golden altar in heaven, to Christ, king-adored, as Son of God, and to His Father to whom He offers these souls (Preface).

Source: Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, OSB, 1945, adapted and abridged.

Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christum imperat!

October 29th marks the glorious Solemnity of Christ the King.  Here is my post from last year:

https://damselofthefaith.wordpress.com/2014/10/25/christ-the-king/

Please give Pope Pius XI’s Encyclical on the Feast of Christ the King a read.  A very important Encyclical on the Social Kingship of Christ the King:

http://www.catholictradition.org/Encyclicals/primas.htm

Let us pray that Christ will once again be King over Society and dare we say, acknowledged as King within the Church, for He has been dethroned.

Viva Christo Rey!  Our Lord is our King and He rules over His Kingdom, the Catholic Church, forever and ever!

A Blessed Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King to all!

The following is a sermon from Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre for the Feast of Christ the King, given October 28, 1979:

My dear brethren,

In the magnificent encyclical Quas Primas of His Holiness Pope Pius XI, instituting the Feast of Christ the King, the Pope explains why Our Lord Jesus Christ is truly King, and he gives two particular and profound reasons. There are indeed many scriptural proofs. We have just read the Gospel in which Our Lord Jesus Christ proclaims Himself King. There are many passages from the Psalms and in the New Testament which express this same quality of Our Lord Jesus Christ as King. But His Holiness Pius XI takes care to deepen our knowledge of the reasons of this royalty.

The first reason is what the Church calls the “hypostatic union,” the union of the Divine Person of Our Lord with His human nature. Our Lord is King because He is God. Indeed, there are not two persons in Our Lord, there is not one Divine Person and one human person. There is only one person—the Divine Person who directly assumed a human soul and a human body without passing by the intermediary of a human person. Consequently, when we speak of Jesus Christ, we say the Person of Jesus Christ. Now, this person of Jesus Christ is a Divine Person. Certainly, Jesus Christ is both God and man since He assumed a human soul and a human body. Thus, the human soul and the human body of Our Lord Jesus Christ have become so intimately united to God that they cannot be separated. It is the Person of Our Lord Jesus Christ which is entirely Divine and by His Person, His body and soul are “deified.”

Thus, Our Lord Jesus Christ as He presented Himself along the route of Palestine and even as He presented Himself as an infant in Bethlehem, is King. Not only does He possess the character of this royalty but also the Church teaches us that by this union of God with human nature, with a soul and with a body, which He assumed, Our Lord Jesus Christ is essentially, by nature—Saviour, Priest, and King. He cannot but be the Saviour, for He alone may say that He is God. He alone is able to say that He is the Priest, the Pontiff—He who truly makes the link between heaven and earth—and also He alone is able to say that He is the King. He is not king according to the kingships of this world, that is to say, over a given territory and limited to the earth, to men. Indeed, Our Lord is King not only of the earth but also of heaven. This is the first profound reason of the royalty of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of this we must be convinced in order to see Our Lord as King, our personal King. Our Lord Jesus Christ is our King.

But He is King for another reason as well. Pope Pius XI explains well that Our Lord Jesus Christ is King by conquest. By what conquest?

It is because Our Lord Jesus Christ has conquered all by His Blood, by His Cross and by Calvary.Regnavit a ligno Deus, God has reigned by the wood, i. e., by the Cross, Our Lord has conquered all souls, whomsoever they may be, by right—a strict right. All souls since they are created by God, even if they live for only a moment here on earth, are by right subjects of Our Lord Jesus Christ because He conquered them by His Blood. He wants to save them. He desires to redeem them all by His Blood, His Divine Blood, in order to lead them to heaven. Yes, Our Lord, by His Precious Blood and by His Cross, is by right Our King. This is the very reason why in the early centuries after the peace of Constantine, when the Christians were officially able to present the Cross in their churches, in their chapels and in other places of worship, they usually represented Our Lord Jesus Christ as a crowned King; crowned with the crown of Kings. Christ is surely our King and He is King by His Cross.

We must then consider the principles of this nature of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King, of this conquest which Jesus has made upon our hearts and our souls by His death upon the Cross. Is Our Lord Jesus Christ daily in practice, in all of our actions, in all of our thoughts, truly our King? Pope Pius XI continues in his encyclical to describe the manner in which Our Lord must be our King. He must be the King of our intellects and of our thoughts because He is the Truth (Veritas). Jesus Christ is the Truth because He is God.

Is then Our Lord Jesus Christ truly King of our thoughts? Is it He who truly orients all of our thoughts, our reflections, our intellectual life, in the life of our Faith? Is it truly Our Lord Jesus Christ Who is the light of our intellects? Is He King of our wills?

He is the Law. If the Tablets of the Law were found in the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament, they represented precisely Our Lord Jesus Christ Who today is found in our tabernacles. But today with a tremendous superiority have. we the Law in our tabernacles, in our “arks of the covenant.” It is no longer the cold stones of the Old Testament but rather it is Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself Who is the Law. The Word of God is the Law by Whom all has been made, in Whom all things have been created. He is the Law not only of souls, of minds, of wills but He is the Law of all nature. All the laws which we discover in nature come from Our Lord Jesus Christ-come from the Word of God. It suffices to consider that all creatures follow with incomparable fidelity the laws of God, that they follow physical laws, chemical laws and all the laws of vegetative nature, of animal nature. These laws are followed impeccably.

And we, too, must follow in a diligent manner, in a free manner, the laws of God inscribed in our hearts. It is precisely due to our liberty that we must attach ourselves to this law which is the path of our happiness, the way to eternal life.

Man has turned away from this law.

Our Lord Jesus Christ must then be—must again become—the King of our wills and we must conform our wills to His law, to His Law of love, to His law of charity, to the Commandments which He has given us and which He Himself told us encompass all other Commandments: To love God and to love one’s neighbors. Are not these two in fact one and the same Commandment? It is He Who tells us so. Do we then truly conform our wills to the law of Our Lord Jesus Christ? Is Jesus Christ truly King of our wills?

Finally, Jesus has to be, as Pope Pius XI tells us, the King of our hearts. Are our hearts trulyattached to Our Lord Jesus Christ? Are we conscious of the fact that Our Lord Jesus Christ is our ALL—Omnia in omnibus.Jesus Christ is all and in all things. It is He in ipso omnia constant as St. Paul says. In Him all is sustained, in Him we live, in Him we are and we act. It is this that St. Paul explains in his discourse to the Areopagite: In ipso vivimus, in ipso movemur, in ipso summus—He holds all in His hand.

We must then wonder what the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph must have thought. I believe that there is an admirable example for us. If we truly desire that Jesus Christ be our King we must try to imagine what Nazareth must have been. Jesus, Mary and Joseph. What must Mary have thought of Jesus? What must Joseph have thought of Jesus? It is incredible! It is a great mystery, an impenetrable mystery of the goodness, of the charity of God. To think that He permitted two creatures chosen by Him, to live with Him! For St. Joseph during thirty years, for the Blessed Virgin during thirty-three years, in the intimacy of Jesus, in the intimacy of He Who is God. It is He without whom neither Mary nor Joseph could speak, think, nor live. Mary bearing Jesus in her arms, bearing God in her arms! As the Gospel often says it was not she who was bearing Jesus but Jesus who was bearing her. For Jesus was much greater than she for He is God. Just think what must have been in the soul, will and heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary living with Jesus, seeing Him with His young companions, seeing Him working with St. Joseph.

We also have the joy to live with Our Lord.

Even under the delicate envelope of her body, the Blessed Virgin Mary adored the living God for she knew—she knew that the living God was in her home. She knew this through the Annunciation by the angel. And St. Joseph knew it perfectly as well.

We, too, know that we have the living Jesus in our tabernacles under the delicate Eucharistic species. Jesus is there! Not only do we have Him in our tabernacles, but moreover in a manner which I would say is almost more intimate than that of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of St. Joseph, when Our Lord gives Himself to us as our spiritual food.

Imagine, that truly in our bodies, in our hearts we bear Jesus—we bear God who sustains us, for without Him we would not be able to live nor exist nor say a single word nor even think a single thought. And we bear this God in the Holy Eucharist!

Let us ask Our Lord Jesus Christ when we receive Him in us that He be our King—that He may give us the thoughts of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of St. Joseph; that our wills be as theirs, submitted to His law; that He may grant us the affections of the hearts of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, these creatures whom He chose from all eternity to be His guardians, to be those with whom He was to live.

Ask them—ask Mary and Joseph—to help us live under the sweet Kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ. One day, we hope that we shall be in that Kingdom and that we shall see Him in His splendour and in His glory as we say so often when we recite the Angelus ut per passionem ijus et crucem ad resurrectionis gloriam perducamur—in order that by His Passion and Cross we may be brought to the glory of His Resurrection.

Indeed, we also must pass now by the Passion and Cross of Jesus upon the earth in order that one day we be able to join in the glory of His Resurrection, this glory which illuminates heaven, which is heaven, for God is heaven. Thus Our Lord Jesus Christ is heaven. In Him we will live in the grace of God by the grace of God. If we have Him already as our King here on earth, then we shall have Him as our King for all eternity.

Beseech the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph today, not only for us, but for our families, for all those who surround us, that they may come to the light of Our Lord Jesus Christ, that they recognize evil, and also for those who do not obey Him or who withdraw themselves from Him. Have pity on all these souls who do not know the King of Love and of Glory, in whom we have the happiness to believe, in whom we have the happiness to love. Beseech Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and St. Joseph to convert all these souls to Our Lord Jesus Christ the King.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

 

 

Christ is King

Let us continue to meditate upon the Kingship of Christ, so often maligned by ungrateful men and the teaching of the Social Kingship of Christ abandoned by His Church.

Jesus, King of the Church, forgive those who are grievously offending you by attacking your most sacred truths.

A meditation from St. Augustine:

What a stupendous thing it was for the King of the ages to become King of men! For Christ did not become King of Israel to exact tribute, to equip armies with swords, not subdue visible foes. He became King of Israel that He might rule over men’s souls, counsel them about eternity, that He might lead to the kingdom of heaven those who would believe in Him, hope in Him, and love Him. Accordingly it was not to increase His power–it was condescension on His part that made Him, the Son of God, co-equal with the Father, the Word by Whom all things were made–wish to become King of Israel. It was an indication of His mercy; it did not augment his power. He Who on earth was called King of the Jews, in heaven is called Lord of the Angels. But is Christ King of the Jews only, and not King of the Gentiles, too. When in prophecy He said, “But I have established my kingdom upon Sion, My holy mountain. I will make known the decree of the Lord,” He added immediately so that the mention of Mount Sion might not lead men to believe He had been anointed King of the Jews solely: The Lord has said to me: Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of me and I will give thee the Gentiles for Thy inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Thy possessions.

Jesus answered: My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My followers would have fought that I might not be delivered to the Jews. But as it is, My kingdom is not from here. This is what the good Master wished us to know. First we had to learn how vain was the notion of his kingdom should be hostile either to the Romans or to the Jews. When the Roman governor asked Jesus Art thou king of the Jews, the Lord could have answered: My kingdom is not of this world. But Christ asked in his turn, “Dost thou say this of thyself, or have others told thee of me?” because he wished to show from Pilate’s answer that He, Jesus, had been charged with this as a crime before Pilate by the Jews. Thus he laid bare to us the thoughts of men which He knew and which were vain. After the reply of Pilate Jesus replied to them, to both Jews and Gentiles, more fittingly and more opportunely, My kingdom is not of this world.

Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christum imperat!

Today is the glorious Solemnity of Christ the King.  Here is my post from last year:

https://damselofthefaith.wordpress.com/2014/10/25/christ-the-king/

Please give Pope Pius XI’s Encyclical on the Feast of Christ the King a read.  A very important Encyclical on the Social Kingship of Christ the King:

http://www.catholictradition.org/Encyclicals/primas.htm

Let us pray that Christ will once again be King over Society and dare we say, acknowledged as King within the Church.

Viva Christo Rey!  Our Lord is our King and He rules over His Kingdom, the Catholic Church, forever and ever!

A Blessed Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King to all!

The following is a sermon from Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre for the Feast of Christ the King, given October 28, 1979:

My dear brethren,

In the magnificent encyclical Quas Primas of His Holiness Pope Pius XI, instituting the Feast of Christ the King, the Pope explains why Our Lord Jesus Christ is truly King, and he gives two particular and profound reasons. There are indeed many scriptural proofs. We have just read the Gospel in which Our Lord Jesus Christ proclaims Himself King. There are many passages from the Psalms and in the New Testament which express this same quality of Our Lord Jesus Christ as King. But His Holiness Pius XI takes care to deepen our knowledge of the reasons of this royalty.

The first reason is what the Church calls the “hypostatic union,” the union of the Divine Person of Our Lord with His human nature. Our Lord is King because He is God. Indeed, there are not two persons in Our Lord, there is not one Divine Person and one human person. There is only one person—the Divine Person who directly assumed a human soul and a human body without passing by the intermediary of a human person. Consequently, when we speak of Jesus Christ, we say the Person of Jesus Christ. Now, this person of Jesus Christ is a Divine Person. Certainly, Jesus Christ is both God and man since He assumed a human soul and a human body. Thus, the human soul and the human body of Our Lord Jesus Christ have become so intimately united to God that they cannot be separated. It is the Person of Our Lord Jesus Christ which is entirely Divine and by His Person, His body and soul are “deified.”

Thus, Our Lord Jesus Christ as He presented Himself along the route of Palestine and even as He presented Himself as an infant in Bethlehem, is King. Not only does He possess the character of this royalty but also the Church teaches us that by this union of God with human nature, with a soul and with a body, which He assumed, Our Lord Jesus Christ is essentially, by nature—Saviour, Priest, and King. He cannot but be the Saviour, for He alone may say that He is God. He alone is able to say that He is the Priest, the Pontiff—He who truly makes the link between heaven and earth—and also He alone is able to say that He is the King. He is not king according to the kingships of this world, that is to say, over a given territory and limited to the earth, to men. Indeed, Our Lord is King not only of the earth but also of heaven. This is the first profound reason of the royalty of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of this we must be convinced in order to see Our Lord as King, our personal King. Our Lord Jesus Christ is our King.

But He is King for another reason as well. Pope Pius XI explains well that Our Lord Jesus Christ is King by conquest. By what conquest?

It is because Our Lord Jesus Christ has conquered all by His Blood, by His Cross and by Calvary. Regnavit a ligno Deus, God has reigned by the wood, i. e., by the Cross, Our Lord has conquered all souls, whomsoever they may be, by right—a strict right. All souls since they are created by God, even if they live for only a moment here on earth, are by right subjects of Our Lord Jesus Christ because He conquered them by His Blood. He wants to save them. He desires to redeem them all by His Blood, His Divine Blood, in order to lead them to heaven. Yes, Our Lord, by His Precious Blood and by His Cross, is by right Our King. This is the very reason why in the early centuries after the peace of Constantine, when the Christians were officially able to present the Cross in their churches, in their chapels and in other places of worship, they usually represented Our Lord Jesus Christ as a crowned King; crowned with the crown of Kings. Christ is surely our King and He is King by His Cross.

We must then consider the principles of this nature of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King, of this conquest which Jesus has made upon our hearts and our souls by His death upon the Cross. Is Our Lord Jesus Christ daily in practice, in all of our actions, in all of our thoughts, truly our King? Pope Pius XI continues in his encyclical to describe the manner in which Our Lord must be our King. He must be the King of our intellects and of our thoughts because He is the Truth (Veritas). Jesus Christ is the Truth because He is God.

Is then Our Lord Jesus Christ truly King of our thoughts? Is it He who truly orients all of our thoughts, our reflections, our intellectual life, in the life of our Faith? Is it truly Our Lord Jesus Christ Who is the light of our intellects? Is He King of our wills?

He is the Law. If the Tablets of the Law were found in the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament, they represented precisely Our Lord Jesus Christ Who today is found in our tabernacles. But today with a tremendous superiority have. we the Law in our tabernacles, in our “arks of the covenant.” It is no longer the cold stones of the Old Testament but rather it is Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself Who is the Law. The Word of God is the Law by Whom all has been made, in Whom all things have been created. He is the Law not only of souls, of minds, of wills but He is the Law of all nature. All the laws which we discover in nature come from Our Lord Jesus Christ-come from the Word of God. It suffices to consider that all creatures follow with incomparable fidelity the laws of God, that they follow physical laws, chemical laws and all the laws of vegetative nature, of animal nature. These laws are followed impeccably.

And we, too, must follow in a diligent manner, in a free manner, the laws of God inscribed in our hearts. It is precisely due to our liberty that we must attach ourselves to this law which is the path of our happiness, the way to eternal life.

Man has turned away from this law.

Our Lord Jesus Christ must then be—must again become—the King of our wills and we must conform our wills to His law, to His Law of love, to His law of charity, to the Commandments which He has given us and which He Himself told us encompass all other Commandments: To love God and to love one’s neighbors. Are not these two in fact one and the same Commandment? It is He Who tells us so. Do we then truly conform our wills to the law of Our Lord Jesus Christ? Is Jesus Christ truly King of our wills?

Finally, Jesus has to be, as Pope Pius XI tells us, the King of our hearts. Are our hearts truly attached to Our Lord Jesus Christ? Are we conscious of the fact that Our Lord Jesus Christ is our ALL—Omnia in omnibus. Jesus Christ is all and in all things. It is He in ipso omnia constant as St. Paul says. In Him all is sustained, in Him we live, in Him we are and we act. It is this that St. Paul explains in his discourse to the Areopagite: In ipso vivimus, in ipso movemur, in ipso summus—He holds all in His hand.

We must then wonder what the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph must have thought. I believe that there is an admirable example for us. If we truly desire that Jesus Christ be our King we must try to imagine what Nazareth must have been. Jesus, Mary and Joseph. What must Mary have thought of Jesus? What must Joseph have thought of Jesus? It is incredible! It is a great mystery, an impenetrable mystery of the goodness, of the charity of God. To think that He permitted two creatures chosen by Him, to live with Him! For St. Joseph during thirty years, for the Blessed Virgin during thirty-three years, in the intimacy of Jesus, in the intimacy of He Who is God. It is He without whom neither Mary nor Joseph could speak, think, nor live. Mary bearing Jesus in her arms, bearing God in her arms! As the Gospel often says it was not she who was bearing Jesus but Jesus who was bearing her. For Jesus was much greater than she for He is God. Just think what must have been in the soul, will and heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary living with Jesus, seeing Him with His young companions, seeing Him working with St. Joseph.

We also have the joy to live with Our Lord.

Even under the delicate envelope of her body, the Blessed Virgin Mary adored the living God for she knew—she knew that the living God was in her home. She knew this through the Annunciation by the angel. And St. Joseph knew it perfectly as well.

We, too, know that we have the living Jesus in our tabernacles under the delicate Eucharistic species. Jesus is there! Not only do we have Him in our tabernacles, but moreover in a manner which I would say is almost more intimate than that of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of St. Joseph, when Our Lord gives Himself to us as our spiritual food.

Imagine, that truly in our bodies, in our hearts we bear Jesus—we bear God who sustains us, for without Him we would not be able to live nor exist nor say a single word nor even think a single thought. And we bear this God in the Holy Eucharist!

Let us ask Our Lord Jesus Christ when we receive Him in us that He be our King—that He may give us the thoughts of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of St. Joseph; that our wills be as theirs, submitted to His law; that He may grant us the affections of the hearts of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, these creatures whom He chose from all eternity to be His guardians, to be those with whom He was to live.

Ask them—ask Mary and Joseph—to help us live under the sweet Kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ. One day, we hope that we shall be in that Kingdom and that we shall see Him in His splendour and in His glory as we say so often when we recite the Angelus ut per passionem ijus et crucem ad resurrectionis gloriam perducamur—in order that by His Passion and Cross we may be brought to the glory of His Resurrection.

Indeed, we also must pass now by the Passion and Cross of Jesus upon the earth in order that one day we be able to join in the glory of His Resurrection, this glory which illuminates heaven, which is heaven, for God is heaven. Thus Our Lord Jesus Christ is heaven. In Him we will live in the grace of God by the grace of God. If we have Him already as our King here on earth, then we shall have Him as our King for all eternity.

Beseech the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph today, not only for us, but for our families, for all those who surround us, that they may come to the light of Our Lord Jesus Christ, that they recognize evil, and also for those who do not obey Him or who withdraw themselves from Him. Have pity on all these souls who do not know the King of Love and of Glory, in whom we have the happiness to believe, in whom we have the happiness to love. Beseech Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and St. Joseph to convert all these souls to Our Lord Jesus Christ the King.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

The Church and the World – the Statesmanship of Christ the King

http://www.catholicapologetics.info/modernproblems/ecumenism/reign.htm

The following is from Fideliter March-April, 1995 by Bishop Tissier de Mallerias:

If we do not love Christ’s social reign, we will fall under the social reign of the devil.

We are convinced that the rejection of the Social Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ by the nations is the cause of their ruin, or of the most serious disorders and of inextricable problems of the moral, political, social and economic order that no one can master today. We are conscious of the fact that the triumphant revolution is establishing a new world order on the ruins of the apostate nations, and this new order is essentially anti-christian. We observe that the conciliar Church co-operates in this work, while substituting for the religion of God-made-man, the cult of man making himself God. We should all be resolved as much as lies in us, to fight this satanic plan, which God may deign to dissipate with the breath of His mouth. Sons of the Catholic Church, adhering to the indefectible voice of the Spouse of Christ, we proclaim the absolute Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ over the human affairs, over societies and over nations.

1. Claims of Our Lord Jesus Christ to Universal Kingship
Our Lord Jesus Christ is necessarily King. By nature He possesses, inasmuch as He is man, the primacy of excellence and of perfection over every creature (Quas Primas [Q.P.] 533, Col. 1:15-17) and particularly the knowledge and power to rule and direct all human temporal affairs of His and His Father’s glory. (Q.P. 540). So as not to empty the humiliation of the Cross, He is abstaining from practising His temporal Kingship Himself. In fact, Our Lord is also in possession of a spiritual and priestly, of a universal and victorious Kingship over all men so as to take them back through Him, the sole Head in the unity of the Mystical Body, the Catholic Church (Col. 1,18). This spiritual Kingship is spread out over temporal affairs to the degree that these serve Him to triumph over His enemies and to extend the Reign of Grace.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, His Mother and co-adjutrix in the work of Redemption, partakes in the Kingship of Christ (Pius XII, Ad Coeli Reginam) and disposes over hearts for it. “Regnum Christi per Regnam Mariae – The Reign of Christ, through the Reign of Mary.”

2. Christ, foundation and restorer of the natural order
Man fallen from his native dignity by original sin (Roman Missal, Collect for Thursday of Passion Week) is only reinstated in that natural dignity by the spiritual Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ Who takes care of man’s wounded nature only by lifting it to the supernatural dignity of the child of God (Summa I-II q. 109a2). Likewise, the natural order of human affairs (Pius XII, Summa Pontificatus 740) only receives its full solidity (Col. 1,17) and integrity on the unique foundation on which it behooves to be restored, i.e. on Christ in which it is ceaselessly to be done. It is only found in Christian civilisation, in the Catholic City.

3. Christ the supreme legislator
Christ the Man with the twofold claim of His birth and conquest through the Cross, in Whom are enclosed all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2,3) to Whom God has made over all power in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18) is given to men as sovereign legislator Whom they ought to obey (Q.P. 536) and as supreme judge from Whom they receive rewards and chastisements in this as well as in the next life. (Q.P. 537)

4. Universality of Christ’s Reign
Christ’s empire “does not extend exclusively over Catholic nations nor only over baptised Christians… it embraces equally and without exceptions all men, even strangers to the Catholic Faith (Q.P. 542). Our Lord however, only reigns effectively over nations whose leaders He baptised and whose constitutions He christianised (St Pius X, Allocution December 13, 1908).

The Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ embraces all times, it embraces those who have need of Him, those that battled for Him, those who lived for Him and those who separated from Him. He proves that Christ is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end of history (Q.P. 562). His Kingship will be fulfilled on the last day when He will take spectacular vengeance on His enemies (Q.P. 569). The final and triumphant state will be found in the plenitude of glory of His saints and elect (Eph. 4:13).

5. About Our Lord’s Social Reign
God has so constituted man that he cannot exist nor attain his temporal perfection without the cooperation of his fellow men (St Thomas, De Regno, Bk. 1 Ch. 1). This social nature of man thus has God for its author, so that societies no less than individuals are God’s creatures (Philippe, Christ, King of Nations).

Our Lord Jesus Christ, by His natural primacy is thus as man, King of Societies, particularly King of families and of nations, and by His Kingship of Grace He governs them towards their supernatural end. (Q.P. 543)

6. The Primacy of the Common Good
Man being by nature part of all that goes with a well regulated multitude (St Thomas, 1. Ethics lec. 1 n4), he must necessarily align himself with society as to his end (II-II al q.64 a2), i.e. adapt and dispose his person to act in common with others, thus making up society and in which the person finds his temporal perfection (II-IIa1 q26 a3 and a2). Likewise, he must submit his particular interest to the common good, to wit, sacrifice his life fot it (I-IIae q96 a4). Society being in effect but a unity of order and not a substantial unity (St Thomas 1 Ethics, lect 1 n. 5), the common temporal good is not separated from individuals, but it is their good, and it principally consists in a good and virtuous life (Rerum Novarum 303), to which everyone contributes his part (.ibid). Moreover, the ultimate end of man is not a virtuous life but through this to arrive at eternal beatitude (St Thomas De Regno, Bk. 1, ch. 14 n.3). Thus the common temporal good is ordered indirectly to the Triune God (II-IIae q.83 a6), the common good of the city of the blessed, Liberalism and totalitarianism are anti-Christian (Pope Pius XI, Divini Redemptoris, no. 3). The individual as king dissolves the common good by the rights of man without God (Pius XI, Aliquantulum 1).

The deified State in turn confiscates the common good in the interest of the faction that is in power and this is slavery. Only the primacy of Christ the King, tearing away from State and individual their usurped crown can give to the common good its primacy and assure its authenticity (Pope Pius XII Allocution June 16, 1939).

7. King of Kings and Lord of Lords
All authority comes from God (Romans 13:1). Political authority does not come from the people but from God. Perhaps an election determines the person of the leader, but it does not confer authority. One decides by whom power must be exercised. Supreme temporal sovereignty belongs to Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Tim. 6:15), but since He abstains from exercising it Himself, He delegates temporal power to His human office holders, whether they be hereditary monarchs or elected presidents, who do command less in their own name than in the name and in place of the divine King (Q.P. 547). There is no choice between a modern democracy and Christ the King – long live Christ the King.

8. Sovereign Legislator
The law is “an ordinance of reason for the common good promulgated by him who has the care of the community (St Thomas I-IIae q. 90 a1). It is not the work of the human will, even if it is general (cf. Declaration of the Rights of Man) but a work of reason and the wisdom of the legislator. Civil law is destined to apply and make natural law more precise, i.e. human reason partakes in law (I-IIae q.91a2). It is a precious help for human freedom (Leo XIII Libertas 179-180). Our Lord Jesus Christ “by Whom kings reign and legislators decree what is just” (Pr 8,15) has confirmed natural law and promulgated the law of the Gospel (Matt. 5:17) so that human laws find their norm there. The Sovereign Legislator, Christ the King, is the only one to give peace to the nations, i.e. tranquility and order, the peace of Christ in the reign of Christ (Pius XI, Ubi Arcano).

9. King of Families
Both the Catholic City as well as the Church depend for their preservation and prosperity on fertile marriages (Pius XII Allocution to young spouses). Jesus Christ, King of Nations, is thus King of the family, the mother-cell of society (Pius XI Casti Connubi). He recalls that the State must not absorb but supplement what the family cannot do (Pius XI Allocution to the pupils of Mondragone). The Sovereign Legislator, Our Lord Jesus Christ, takes marriage back to its original sanctity and elevates it to the dignity of a sacrament (Casti Connubi 282). Through the voice of the Church, His Mystical Body, He recalls to souls the natural law, and through the instrument of civil legislation He imposes the law on the public life of the Catholic Community, the ‘City’, in what concerns procreation, reserved to marriage, the preservation of life, conjugal chastity (Pius XII Allocution to midwives), the unity and indissolubility of marriage; He condemns the contrary crimes, He promotes large families with all the virtues (Pius XII Allocution to young spouses), the glory of the Catholic Church where holy religious and priestly vocations flourish.

10. Master of Educators
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Master, is King of parents and educators, Master of teachers. He reminds the State that education of the child naturally belongs to those who have begotten it, i.e. to the parents (Pius XI Divini Illius Magistri 257). The family is therefore the prime educator and the State cannot arrange the education of children against the will of the parents (op. cit. 258). The family and the school however, must, in instructing and educating, respect the natural and divine law and only teach things that are true (Leo XIII Libertas 209).

Our Lord Jesus Christ confides to the Catholic Church the entire moral and supernatural truth (Pius XI Divini Illius Magistri 24) with the mission to teach all nations (Matt. 28:18). He endows it for that with an infallible magisterium (Pius IX Denz. 1683), with a sovereign authority and with an independence from all earthly power in the original source and exercise of its educative mission (Pius XI Divini Illius Magistri 247).

11. Church and State
What Christ the King is to the Catholic City, the Church, His Mystical Spouse, is in relation to the State. The Catholic Church being spiritual and supernatural, is the supreme society. She is a perfect spouse endowed by her divine Spouse with all the spiritual and temporal means to ‘lead men to salvation’ (Leo XIII Immortale Dei 134)

The Church and the State are independent and sovereign, each in its own domain (op. cit. 136), but by reason of the subordination of the State’s end (the temporal common good) to the Church’s end (eternal salvation), the State is indirectly subordinate to the Church which can intervene in the temporal order in the name of supernatural interests (op. cit. 137), and to require from the State protection (op. cit. 131) against the disturbers of the Catholic religion (Pius IX Quanta Cura 39).

Likewise, it behooves the State to protect the unanimity of the citizens in the true religion, an important element of the temporal common good (Card. Ottavianni – Proposition of the Schema on Church and State).

The public duty or office renders to Jesus, our King, public homage according to the cult of the Catholic religion (Q.P. 543, 569).

Finally, the State, according to the circumstances and the judgement of the Church, can tolerate the public exercise of dissident cults and legally guarantee that tolerance (Leo XIII, Immortale Dei 154). However, in principle, it cannot grant liberty to all cults without distinction (Pius VII, Pius IX, Leo XIII), nor admit the false principle of religious liberty. This would be an offence towards the divinity of the Church and towards the spiritual Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

12. The Christian political, social and economic order
The wisdom of the Angelic Doctor, the interventions of the popes, and the reflections of thinkers against the (French) Revolution release the general principles of the natural and Christian order.

Following are some aphorisms expressing these:

“Only the devil has need of universal suffrage.” (Leo XIII Diuturum 105)

“Democracy presupposes civic virtue in all, the monarchy, prudence in one person only.” (St Thomas I-II ae q 105 a1 and a3)

“The arrival of universal democracy is of no importance to the Church’s actions in the world.” (St Pius X, Our Apostolic Mandate 31, Instauratio Press edition)

“If the moment has not come for Jesus Christ to reign, the moment has not come for governments to endure.” (Card. Pie, conversation with Napoleon III)

“The principle of subsidiarity [Pius XI Quadrigesimo Anno 38] (i.e. to favour private initiatives, the State only intervening to supply what private persons cannot do) prevents effective socialist control.” (Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum 296)

“The principle of the common good does away with effective liberal control.” (Quadrigesimo Anno 532, 534)

“Justice is the first of the charities.” (Quadrigesimo Anno 523)

“Christian charity tempers the injustice of the unjust. The charity of the unjust is the height of injustice.” and “The justice of the common good is the first justice.” (St Thomas II IIae q58a5)

God says : “So as to be rich, multiply and subdue the earth.”

The Devil says: “To be rich, be sterile and the earth as well.”

There is no middle way. Either the social reign of the devil, or the Social Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ the King is the unique hope of the nations. (Gen. 19:10) It is Him that they wait for in darkness, amidst the accumulated ruins of “two centuries of liberal culture.” (The Ratzinger Report)

With our Holy Mother the Church, we proclaim that today as always, Our Lord Jesus Christ is the unique source of salvation, both of societies and of individuals (Q.P. 543), since for the material or spiritual, for the temporal as for the eternal, “there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

Repent and turn to God, America

On this Independence Day, we must pray for America, that she will repent of her crimes, turn back to God and recognize the Catholic Church as the true religion and Christ as King.  The Social Kingship of Christ is our aim.  Religious liberty, which this Country so greatly hails, is anathema.  If we want true peace and a just Society, we must recognize Christ as King, His Church as truth and follow His Laws set in place for our eternal salvation and welfare.  One this becomes reality, then we will have seen the restoration of all things in Christ and America will be a great nation.

The prayer of Bishop John Carroll, the first Bishop of the United States of America:

We pray, O almighty and eternal God, who through Jesus Christ has revealed thy glory to all nations, to preserve the works of your mercy, that your Church, being spread through the whole world, may continue with unchanging faith in the confession of your name.

We pray Thee, who alone are good and holy, to endow with heavenly knowledge, sincere zeal and sanctity of life, our chief bishop, the pope, the vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the government of his Church; our own bishop, all other bishops, prelates and pastors of the Church; and especially those who are appointed to exercise among us the functions of the holy ministry, and conduct your people into the ways of salvation.

We pray O God of might, wisdom and justice, through whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with your Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude the president of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness and be eminently useful to your people over whom he presides; by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality.

Let the light of your divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government, so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety and useful knowledge; and may perpetuate to us the blessing of equal liberty.

We pray for his excellency, the governor of this state, for the members of the assembly, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare, that they may be enabled, by your powerful protection, to discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability.

We recommend likewise, to your unbounded mercy, all our brethren and fellow citizens throughout the United States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge and sanctified in the observance of your most holy law; that they may be preserved in union, and in that peace which the world cannot give; and after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal.

Finally, we pray to you, O Lord of mercy, to remember the souls of your servants departed, who are gone before us with the sign of faith and repose in the sleep of peace; the souls of our parents, relatives and friends; of those who, when living, were members of this congregation, and particularly of such as are lately deceased; of all benefactors who, by their donations or legacies to this Church, witnessed their zeal for the decency of divine worship and proved their claim to our grateful and charitable remembrance. To these, O Lord, and to all that rest in Christ, grant, we beseech you, a place of refreshment, light and everlasting peace, through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Christ the King

With tomorrow being the solemn Feast of Christ the King, we would do well to reflect on this great Feast of Holy Church and the Social Kingship of Jesus Christ.

Christ’s Kingship is repeatedly confirmed in Sacred Scripture.

“Pilate therefore went into the hall again, and called Jesus, and said to him: 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? Thy 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 born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth. Every one that is of the truth, heareth my voice.”  ~John 18: 33-37

“For the kingdom is the Lord’s; and he shall have dominion over the nations.”  ~Psalms 22:28

“I will extol thee, O God my king: and I will bless thy name for ever; yea, for ever and ever. Every day I will bless thee: and I will praise thy name for ever; yea, for ever and ever.  Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: and of his greatness there is no end. Generation and generation shall praise thy works: and they shall declare thy power.  They shall speak of the magnificence of the glory of thy holiness: and shall tell thy wondrous works.”  ~Psalms 144: 1-5

“There is one most high Creator Almighty, and a powerful king, and greatly to be feared, who sitteth upon his throne, and is the God of dominion.”  ~Ecclesiasticus 1: 8

“And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name shall be one.”  ~Zechariah 14:9

“For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king: he will save us.”  ~Isaiah 33: 22

“But the Lord is the true God: he is the living God, and the everlasting king, at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his threatening.”  ~Jeremiah 10: 10

Christ is King not only of society, but of His Kingdom, the Holy Catholic Church.  Because He is God, His reign extends not only to individual persons, but to whole nations.  All men must obey Christ the King and He must be recognized as King by society.  The laws of His Kingdom, the Ten Commandments and the Teachings of the Catholic Church, must be obeyed by all.  Until this is done, the world will not have peace.  Until all things are restored in Christ the King, the world cannot have peace.

Pope Pius XI in his Encyclical Letter “Quas Primas”, established the Feast of Christ the King for the Universal Church.

http://www.catholictradition.org/Encyclicals/primas.htm

From Quas Primas:

“When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony. Our Lord’s regal office invests the human authority of princes and rulers with a religious significance; it ennobles the citizen’s duty of obedience. It is for this reason that St. Paul, while bidding wives revere Christ in their husbands, and slaves respect Christ in their masters, warns them to give obedience to them not as men, but as the vicegerents of Christ; for it is not meet that men redeemed by Christ should serve their fellow-men. “You are bought with a price; be not made the bond-slaves of men.”  If princes and magistrates duly elected are filled with the persuasion that they rule, not by their own right, but by the mandate and in the place of the Divine King, they will exercise their authority piously and wisely, and they will make laws and administer them, having in view the common good and also the human dignity of their subjects. The result will be a stable peace and tranquillity, for there will be no longer any cause of discontent. Men will see in their king or in their rulers men like themselves, perhaps unworthy or open to criticism, but they will not on that account refuse obedience if they see reflected in them the authority of Christ God and Man. Peace and harmony, too, will result; for with the spread and the universal extent of the kingdom of Christ men will become more and more conscious of the link that binds them together, and thus many conflicts will be either prevented entirely or at least their bitterness will be diminished.“

Today, Society no longer honors Christ as King.  Rather, the civil governments mock him by enacting iniquitous laws that mock the laws of God.  Murder of the unborn and every other kind of abomination is sanctioned and tolerated, without giving any thought to the laws of God.  The State should be upholding the laws of God and the truth of the Catholic Church.  Instead, Christ the King has been de-throned in Society and even in the Church, as the great Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre stated.

How has Christ been de-throned in the Church?  Precisely through the heresy of religious liberty.

“When we pay honor to the princely dignity of Christ, men will doubtless be reminded that the Church, founded by Christ as a perfect society, has a natural and inalienable right to perfect freedom and immunity from the power of the state; and that in fulfilling the task committed to her by God of teaching, ruling, and guiding to eternal bliss those who belong to the kingdom of Christ, she cannot be subject to any external power. The State is bound to extend similar freedom to the orders and communities of religious of either sex, who give most valuable help to the Bishops of the Church by laboring for the extension and the establishment of the kingdom of Christ. By their sacred vows they fight against the threefold concupiscence of the world; by making profession of a more perfect life they render the holiness which her divine Founder willed should be a mark and characteristic of his Church more striking and more conspicuous in the eyes of all.

Nations will be reminded by the annual celebration of this feast that not only private individuals but also rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to Christ. It will call to their minds the thought of the last judgment, wherein Christ, Who has been cast out of public life, despised, neglected and ignored, will most severely avenge these insults; for His kingly dignity demands that the State should take account of the commandments of God and of Christian principles, both in making laws and in administering justice, and also in providing for the young a sound moral education.”

Vatican II de-throned Christ the King.

“I do not hesitate to affirm that the Council brought to reality the conversion of the Church to the world.  I leave it to you to reflect who the moving spirit of this spirituality was: it is enough for you to remember the one whom Our Lord Jesus Christ calls the Prince of this World.”  ~Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, “They Have Uncrowned Him”

Pope Pius X wanted all things restored in Christ.  The restoration of all things in Christ is the Social Kingship of Jesus Christ.

I conclude with the words of Pope Leo XIII on the Kingship of Christ:

“His empire does not extend exclusively over Catholic nations, nor only over baptized Christians, who belong by right to the Church, even if they have strayed far away from Her because of their erroneous opinions or are separated from Her by schism ; it includes also all men without exception, even those who are foreign to the Christian faith, so that the empire of Jesus Christ is, in all truth, the whole human race.”  ~Pope Leo XIII, “Annum sacrum”

It is time society and the Church once again recognizes Christ as King and His Church as the True Church.

Viva Christo Rey!

~ Damsel of the Faith