Monday, October 27, 2014

Some Liturgical Notes on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe and a Question

The Feast of Christ the King is celebrated on the last Sunday in October (October 26th, this year) according to the Extraordinary Form and on the last Sunday of the liturgical year (i.e., the last Sunday before Advent) according to the Ordinary Form.   

Pope Benedict XVI preached that "This solemnity comes at the end of the liturgical year and brings together the mystery of Jesus 'firstborn from the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth' (Collect Year B), extending our gaze towards the full realisation of the Kingdom of God, when God will be all in all (cf 1 Cor 15.28)."

Most other liturgically oriented forms of Christianity celebrate a similar feast.  The Church of Wales (Anglican Communion) has a season. It  celebrates "the four Sundays before Advent [as] the Sundays of the Kingdom and Christ the King is kept as a season and not just as a single festival."

The Roman Catholic feast is a new one instituted in the twentieth century by Pius XI (12/11/1925.) I assume the Pius V fundamentalists do not consider that change in the Missal a violation of Quo Primum. Soon after came the the terrible Calles persecution of the Church including Father Miguel Pro, S.J.'s martyrdom (November 23, 1927) whose last words were "Viva Cristo Rey" and the Cristero revolt (1926–1929.) 

It would seem that the OF (AKA the Novus Ordo) gives greater honor to the feast by putting it at the very end of the liturgical year. Oddly enough, Pius XI wrote: "The last Sunday of October seemed the most convenient of all for this purpose, because it is at the end of the liturgical year, and thus the feast of the Kingship of Christ sets the crowning glory upon the mysteries of the life of Christ already commemorated during the year, and, before celebrating the triumph of all the Saints, we proclaim and extol the glory of him who triumphs in all the Saints and in all the Elect." In my 1940 missal the new liturgical year starts with Advent and thus the old liturgical year ends with the week before Advent, approximately a month after the Feast in the EF. 

 Am I missing something? 

Can anyone spread light on this?

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Cardinal Burke on the Need for Purification

"I think about this first of all concerning myself. If I am suffering at this time because of the situation in the Church, I think that the Lord is telling me that I have need of purification. And I also think that, if the suffering is so widespread, this means that the whole Church is in need of purification. But this is not because of a God who is waiting only to punish us. This is because of our own sins. If in some way we have betrayed doctrine, moral teaching or the liturgy, it follows inevitably that we will undergo a suffering that purifies us to put us back again on the narrow way." - Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, Interview in "il Foglio" (13 Oct 2014)