Sunday 22 November 2020
Christ the King - Solemnity
Office of Readings
Introduction (without Invitatory)
If this is the first Hour that you are reciting today, use the version with the Invitatory Psalm instead.
O God, come to our aid.
O Lord, make haste to help us.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen. Alleluia.
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Hymn
Rejoice, the Lord is King!
Your Lord and King adore!
Mortals, give thanks and sing,
and triumph evermore;
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice;
rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
Jesus, the Saviour, reigns,
the God of truth and love;
when he had purged our stains
he took his seat above.
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice;
rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
His kingdom cannot fail,
he rules o’er earth and heaven,
the keys of death and hell
are to our Jesus given.
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice;
rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
He sits at God’s right hand
till all his foes submit,
and bow to his command,
and fall beneath his feet.
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice;
rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
Rejoice in glorious hope!
Jesus the Judge shall come
and take his servants up
to their eternal home.
We soon shall hear the archangel’s voice;
The trump of God shall sound, rejoice!
Charles Wesley
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Psalm 2
The Messiah, king and victor
“They rose up together against your servant Jesus, whom you had anointed” (Acts 4:27).
I have been set up as king on Sion, his holy mountain, to announce his decree.
Why this tumult among nations,
among peoples this useless murmuring?
They arise, the kings of the earth,
princes plot against the Lord and his Anointed.
‘Come, let us break their fetters,
come, let us cast off their yoke.’
He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord is laughing them to scorn.
Then he will speak in his anger,
his rage will strike them with terror.
‘It is I who have set up my king
on Sion, my holy mountain.’
I will announce the decree of the Lord:
The Lord said to me: ‘You are my Son.
It is I who have begotten you this day.
Ask and I shall bequeath you the nations,
put the ends of the earth in your possession.
With a rod of iron you will break them,
shatter them like a potter’s jar.’
Now, O kings, understand,
take warning, rulers of the earth;
serve the Lord with awe
and trembling, pay him your homage
lest he be angry and you perish;
for suddenly his anger will blaze.
Blessed are they who put their trust in God.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
I have been set up as king on Sion, his holy mountain, to announce his decree.
Psalm-prayer
Lord God, you gave the peoples of the world as the inheritance of your only Son; you crowned him as King of Zion, your holy city, and gave him your Church to be his Bride. As he proclaims the law of your eternal kingdom, may we serve him faithfully, and so share his royal power for ever.
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Psalm 71 (72)
The Messiah's royal power
“They opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh” (Mt 2:11).
All kings will worship him, all peoples will serve him.
O God, give your judgement to the king,
to a king’s son your justice,
that he may judge your people in justice
and your poor in right judgement.
May the mountains bring forth peace for the people
and the hills, justice.
May he defend the poor of the people
and save the children of the needy
and crush the oppressor.
He shall endure like the sun and the moon
from age to age.
He shall descend like rain on the meadow,
like raindrops on the earth.
In his days justice shall flourish
and peace till the moon fails.
He shall rule from sea to sea,
from the Great River to earth’s bounds.
Before him his enemies shall fall,
his foes lick the dust.
The kings of Tarshish and the sea coasts
shall pay him tribute.
The kings of Sheba and Seba
shall bring him gifts.
Before him all kings shall fall prostrate,
all nations shall serve him.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
All kings will worship him, all peoples will serve him.
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Psalm 71 (72)
Every tribe shall be blessed in him, all nations will bless his name.
For he shall save the poor when they cry
and the needy who are helpless.
He will have pity on the weak
and save the lives of the poor.
From oppression he will rescue their lives,
to him their blood is dear.
Long may he live,
may the gold of Sheba be given him.
They shall pray for him without ceasing
and bless him all the day.
May corn be abundant in the land
to the peaks of the mountains.
May its fruit rustle like Lebanon;
may men flourish in the cities
like grass on the earth.
May his name be blessed for ever
and endure like the sun.
Every tribe shall be blessed in him,
all nations bless his name.
Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel,
who alone works wonders,
ever blessed his glorious name.
Let his glory fill the earth.
Amen! Amen!
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
Every tribe shall be blessed in him, all nations will bless his name.
Psalm-prayer
We call upon your name, Father, and pronounce it blessed above the earth. Give your people the fullness of peace and justice in your kingdom.
Or:
Almighty God, you gave the kingdom of justice and peace to David and his descendant, our Lord Jesus Christ. Extend this kingdom to every family of nations so that through your Son all men may obtain true peace, the poor receive justice, the destitute relief, and the people of earth find a blessing in his name.
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℣. Behold, I have set you up as a light for the peoples.
℟. You will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.
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Readings (official one-year cycle)
First Reading
Apocalypse 1:4-6,10,12-18,2:26,28,3:5,12,20-21
Grace and peace to you from him who is, who was, and who is to come, from the seven spirits in his presence before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the First-Born from the dead, the Ruler of the kings of the earth.
He loves us and has washed away our sins with his blood, and made us a line of kings, priests to serve his God and Father; to him, then, be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
It was the Lord’s day and the Spirit possessed me, and I heard a voice behind me, shouting like a trumpet.
I turned round to see who had spoken to me, and when I turned I saw seven golden lamp-stands and, surrounded by them, a figure like a Son of man, dressed in a long robe tied at the waist with a golden girdle. His head and his hair were white as white wool or as snow, his eyes like a burning flame, his feet like burnished bronze when it has been refined in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of the ocean. In his right hand he was holding seven stars, out of his mouth came a sharp sword, double-edged, and his face was like the sun shining with all its force.
When I saw him, I fell in a dead faint at his feet, but he touched me with his right hand and said, ‘Do not be afraid; it is I, the First and the Last; I am the Living One, I was dead and now I am to live for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and of the underworld.
‘To those who prove victorious, and keep working for me until the end, I will give the authority over the pagans which I myself have been given by my Father, and I will give him the Morning Star.
‘I shall not blot their names out of the book of life, but acknowledge their names in the presence of my Father and his angels.
‘I will make them into pillars in the sanctuary of my God, and they will stay there for ever; I will inscribe on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God in heaven, and my own new name as well.
‘Look, I am standing at the door, knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in to share his meal, side by side with him. Those who prove victorious I will allow to share my throne, just as I was victorious myself and took my place with my Father on his throne.’
Responsory
℟. They will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds with great power and glory;* he will send out his angels and gather his chosen from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the farthest bounds of heaven.
℣. He will judge the world with justice, and the peoples with equity;* he will send out his angels and gather his chosen from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the farthest bounds of heaven.
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Second Reading
From a discourse of Origen on prayer
Thy kingdom come
The coming of the kingdom of God, says our Lord and Saviour, does not admit of observation, and there will be no-one to say “Look here! Look there!” For the kingdom of God is within us and in our hearts. And so it is beyond doubt that whoever prays for the coming of the kingdom of God within himself is praying rightly, praying for the kingdom to dawn in him, bear fruit and reach perfection. For God reigns in every saint, and every saint obeys God’s spiritual laws — God, who dwells in him just as he dwells in any well-ordered city. The Father is present in him and in his soul Christ reigns alongside the Father, as it is said: We will come to him and make our dwelling with him.
Therefore, as we continue to move forward without ceasing, the kingdom of God within us will reach its perfection in us at that moment when the saying in the Apostle is fulfilled, that Christ, his enemies all made subject to him, shall deliver the kingdom to God the Father that God may be all in all.
For this reason let us pray without ceasing, our souls filled by a desire made divine by the Word himself. Let us pray to our Father in heaven: hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come.
There is something important that we need to understand about the kingdom of God: just as righteousness has no partnership with lawlessness, just as light has nothing in common with darkness and Christ has no agreement with Belial, so the kingdom of God and a kingdom of sin cannot co-exist.
So if we want God to reign within us, on no account may sin rule in our mortal body but let us mortify our earthly bodies and let us be made fruitful by the Spirit. Then we will be a spiritual garden of Eden for God to walk in. God will rule in us with Christ who will be seated in us on the right hand of God — God, the spiritual power that we pray to receive — until he makes his enemies (who are within us) into his footstool and pours out on us all authority, all power, all strength.
This can happen to any one of us and death, the last enemy may be destroyed, so that in us Christ says Death, where is your sting? Death, where is your victory? So let our corruptibility be clothed today with holiness and incorruption. With Death dead, let our mortality be cloaked in the Father’s immortality. With God ruling in us, let us be immersed in the blessings of regeneration and resurrection.
Responsory
℟. The dominion of the world has passed to the Lord of us all, and to Christ, his anointed:* he shall reign for ever and ever.
℣. All races will worship the Lord to whom all sovereignty belongs;* he shall reign for ever and ever.
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Vigils
If time allows, those who celebrate the Office of Readings of a Sunday (or solemnity, or feast of the Lord) on the evening before, or at the crack of dawn on the day itself, may enrich the celebration with three Old Testament canticles and a Gospel reading.
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Canticle
Te Deum
We praise you, O God:
we acclaim you as the Lord.
Everlasting Father,
all the world bows down before you.
All the angels sing your praise,
the hosts of heaven and all the angelic powers,
all the cherubim and seraphim
call out to you in unending song:
Holy, Holy, Holy,
is the Lord God of angel hosts!
The heavens and the earth are filled
with your majesty and glory.
The glorious band of apostles,
the noble company of prophets,
the white-robed army who shed their blood for Christ,
all sing your praise.
And to the ends of the earth
your holy Church proclaims her faith in you:
Father, whose majesty is boundless,
your true and only Son, who is to be adored,
the Holy Spirit sent to be our Advocate.
You, Christ, are the king of glory,
Son of the eternal Father.
When you took our nature to save mankind
you did not shrink from birth in the Virgin’s womb.
You overcame the power of death
opening the Father’s kingdom to all who believe in you.
Enthroned at God’s right hand in the glory of the Father,
you will come in judgement according to your promise.
You redeemed your people by your precious blood.
Come, we implore you, to our aid.
Grant us with the saints
a place in eternal glory.
The final part of the hymn may be omitted:
Lord, save your people
and bless your inheritance.
Rule them and uphold them
for ever and ever.
Day by day we praise you:
we acclaim you now and to all eternity.
In your goodness, Lord, keep us free from sin.
Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy.
May your mercy always be with us, Lord,
for we have hoped in you.
In you, Lord, we put our trust:
we shall not be put to shame.
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Let us pray.
Almighty, ever-living God,
it is your will to unite the entire universe under your beloved Son,
Jesus Christ, the King of heaven and earth.
Grant freedom to the whole of creation,
and let it praise and serve your majesty for ever.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
(one) God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
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Let us praise the Lord.
– Thanks be to God.
Copyright © 1996-2020 Universalis Publishing Limited: see www.universalis.com. Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible are published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. Text of the Psalms: Copyright © 1963, The Grail (England). Used with permission of A.P. Watt Ltd. All rights reserved.