Christ the King

The feast of Christ the King is a Double of the First Class. The liturgical colour of the feast is white. It is also the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost and the first Sunday of November. The feast of Christ the King was instituted by Pius XI in 1925 and is an interesting example of another feast being permanently celebrated on a Sunday in contrast to the ideology of the reform that had taken place just a decade or so before its promulgation.

At Vespers yesterday afternoon the antiphons Pacificus etc were sung with psalms 109, 110, 111, 112 & 116. The Office hymn was Te saeculorum Principem. After the collect of the feast a commemoration was sung of the Sunday with the antiphon Vidi, Dominum for the Saturday before the first Sunday of November and the collect for the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost. At Compline the Dominical psalms were sung and Te lucis was sung with the Doxology Jesu tibi sit gloria, Qui sceptra mundi temperas, Cum Patre et almo Spiritu, In sempiterna saecula.

At Mattins the invitatory is Jesum Christum, Regem regum Venite adoremus. In the first nocturn the lessons are taken from St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians. In the second nocturn the lessons are taken from Pius XI's encyclical Quas primas. In the third nocturn the homily on St. John's Gospel is taken from the writings of St. Augustine. The ninth lesson is the homily appointed for the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost. The Te Deum is sung. At Lauds the antiphons Suscitabit etc are sung with the Sunday psalms. The Office hymn is Vexilla Christus inclyta. After the collect of the feast a commemoration is sung of the Sunday.

At Prime and the Hours the antiphons Suscitabit etc are sung with the festal psalms (at Prime Pss. 53, 118i & 118ii). The Doxology Jesu tibi sit gloria etc is sung with the hymns of the Hours. At Prime the versicle in the short responsory is Qui primatum in omnibus tenes and the lectio brevis In ipso.

Mass is sung after Terce. The Gloria is sung, the second collect is of the Sunday, the Creed is sung. The preface is proper to the feast and the last Gospel is that of the Sunday.

At Vespers all is sung as yesterday at first Vespers except the versicle & response and the antiphon on the Magnificat which are proper to second Vespers. After the collect of the feast a commemoration is sung of the Sunday.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' at Vespers there is no commemoration of the Sunday. (If there were a commemoration it would be of a different Sunday, the fifth of October. In 1962land the first Sunday of November will be the third). At Mattins in the third nocturn, the third psalm (Ps. 88) gets stripped of over half its verses. Verses Tu vero repulisti... to Benedictus Dominus in aeternam, fiat, fiat, 39 - 53, are omitted. The former eighth lesson is split into two to provide an eighth and ninth lesson as the homily of the Sunday is omitted as a ninth lesson. At Lauds there is no commemoration sung of the Sunday. At Prime and the Hours the Doxology for the feast is omitted. At Prime the lectio brevis is of the season. At Mass there is no commemoration of the Sunday and the last Gospel is In principio. At Vespers there is no commemoration of the Sunday.