Celebrating Beauty: The Solemnity of Christ the King

An ongoing series about how to add a little beauty to our favorite feasts and seasons

This year on November 22nd, we will celebrate the Solemnity of Christ, the King of the Universe. This feast occurs on the last Sunday of the liturgical year. This feast was instituted by Pope Pope Pius XI in 1925 in his encyclical Quas Primas (you can read that here) as a response to the increasingly secular worldview that the government is the origin of all rights, freedoms, and powers, a worldview that removed Christ from His proper place as the ne to whom all our allegiance is owed. On the Solemnity of Christ the King, we celebrate the kingship of Christ and acknowledge that He is Lord of the Universe and of our lives. He has a place that no person or government can fill. This feast is particularly beautiful because it challenges us to take a hard look at our lives to see if they are rightly ordered. Is God the center of our lives? Do we serve the Lord before we serve anything or anyone else?

“The faithful, moreover, by meditating upon these truths, will gain much strength and courage, enabling them to form their lives after the true Christian ideal. If to Christ our Lord is given all power in heaven and on earth; if all men, purchased by his precious blood, are by a new right subjected to his dominion; if this power embraces all men, it must be clear that not one of our faculties is exempt from his empire. He must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the words of the Apostle Paul, as instruments of justice unto God.” – Quas Primas, 33

It is also significant that we celebrate Christ the King as we end the liturgical year. Beginning a few weeks ago, we began hearing more and more readings focused on the end of the world, warning us to be prepared for Christ's second coming. It is at this second coming at the end of time when we will see Christ in all His kingly glory. And as we are asked to think about our own deaths, we are forced to ask ourselves the question who we serve and if we are living our lives in a way that is bringing about the Kingdom of God.

One aspect of beauty is order and as we see with the saints, lives that are rightly ordered are beautiful lives. When we celebrate Christ as King, we acknowledge that He is the Lord of our lives and everything else falls into place around that Truth. When we live out of that Truth, our lives become things of beauty.

Let's Celebrate!

Here are a few suggestions to celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King with beauty!

Prayer:

One of the best ways to celebrate this feast is to spend some more time with Our Lord in prayer. Here is a link to our favorite Christ the King novena! A novena is a set of prayers prayed over a series of nine days leading up to a particular feast day. While the Christ the King Novena finishes on the feast, there is certainly no rule that says you can't pray it for the nine days following the feast!

Another great way to spend time with Christ is to meet Him in Scripture. Pray lectio divina with any of these Scriptures that show Christ as king! This is by no means an exhaustive list since there are so many places in the Bible where God is proclaimed the king, but these are a great place to start:

1 Samuel 8: 4-22
2 Samuel 5: 1-5
Psalms 2, 8, 23, 24, 29, 33, 43, 47, 48, 72, 89, 93, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 103, 104, 105, 110, 119, 145, 149, 150
Isaiah 9: 1-6
Isaiah 11: 1-12
Isaiah 40: 1-11
Isaiah 52: 13-15
Isaiah 60: 1-7
Jeremiah 23: 5-8
Ezekiel 34: 11-12, 15-17
Ezekiel 43: 1-7
Daniel 3: 52-90
Daniel 5: 31-34
Daniel 7: 10-14
Micah 4: 1-7
Micah 5: 1-3
Matthew 1
Matthew 21: 1-11
Matthew 22: 1-14, 41-46
Matthew 24: 29-31, 36-44
Matthew 25
Matthew 27: 11-14
Mark 11: 1-11
Mark 12: 35-37
Mark 15: 1-15
Luke 1: 26-38, 67-79
Luke 2: 8-14
Luke 3: 23-38
Luke 19: 11-44
Luke 23: 1-5, 38-42
John 1: 47-51
John 10: 11-18
John 12: 12-19
John 18: 33-19:22
Acts 1: 6-12
Romans 8: 14-17
1 Corinthians 15: 20-28
Revelation 5: 1-14
Revelation 12: 1-5
Revelation 19: 11-16

Playlist:

I'm sure you saw this one coming. Celebrate the feast by listening to beautiful music that proclaims Christ as king! You can find a link to the Christ the King Playlist here.