Christ the King

For those following the Roman Calendar of the Ordinary Form, this Sunday is the Solemnity of Christ the King. If I didn’t remember, my stats would remind me, because my Christ the King searches are running an all-time high.

But for convenience purposes, all my Christ the King posts are here and the craft, music for “An Army of Youth” and prayer are all here.

Be sure to check out  O Night Divine for many different ideas for celebrating this feast day.

I am thinking of having crowns and decorate them for this feast day for each child. The crowns will help us remind of Christ’s kingship. But the crowns I want to use for double duty — these will be saved for reuse at Epiphany. Every year I run out of time for making crowns for Epiphany celebration.

Why didn’t I think of this before? Off to find some good crown templates!

Christ the King Reprise

I’m looking back at our week during which we concentrated on the Solemnity of Christ the King..

Sometimes, everything falls into place and a feast day is celebrated like planned, which is wonderful. But even better is when the main goal is achieved: every member in the family takes the outward celebrations to heart and makes spiritual connections and perhaps grows deeper interiorly. I do believe this happened this week. I can’t take credit, it’s God’s grace. But it’s so lovely to behold, and to also see the joy in my son’s face.

Our Mother Church knows how to reach everyone — She knows that we’re not all alike. To a five years old boy, there are some feasts that seem just for him. This has been a year of knights, kings, castles, dragons, so the Feast of the Archangels, St. George, St. Martin of Tours are a perfect fit. And the Solemnity of Christ the King is another one of this genre.

My son easily made the connection that Jesus is the King of all, the greatest King. Counting down the last days of the liturgical year on our laminated calendar helped him look forward to the feast. The idea of a regal dinner and crown shaped cakes was perfect.

Our discussions included preparing Christ’s throne in our hearts, so He will stay with us. Since we were going to be in the King’s presence at Mass, we need to be well-behaved in the presence of Royalty. This Sunday my son actively sang and participated at Mass as he never has before (let’s just say he usually has a short-attention span and leave it at that).

He so enjoyed the hymns, and learned all the words to “For Christ the King”. He was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t sung at Mass, but did notice the Gloria and Alleluia, and belted them out.

I taught him “Viva Christo Rey!“, “Long live Christ our King!” (said by Blessed Miguel Pro whose feast day was actually yesterday. Neat coincidence!).

This was a lesson to me. I need to work on looking ahead to Sunday, and working on the anticipation of celebrating Christ’s Resurrection. I’m also very grateful to have an enthusiastic, imaginative little boy who loves special feast days that incorporate knights and kings, and to be able to watch Grace work without interference from Mommy.

Viva Christo Rey!

End of the Church Year

Christ the King

The Liturgical Year is coming to a close, with Sunday being the last Sunday in Ordinary Time (the BIG Ordinary Time, my son calls it).

Alas, I don’t have time to put much celebration into one of my favorite saints, Saint Cecilia, Patroness of music. I’ll have to mark it in small ways, because my focus is getting ready for Sunday and Advent. I wrote a few posts with some of our celebrations and plans:

Food Fit for THE King at Catholic Cuisine.

For Christ the King at O Night Divine

Celebrating the Solemnity of Christ the King includes a prayer, craft, and sheet music for this day.

ETA: We listen to “For Christ the King” from Non Nobis Domine cd, the Seton choir, put together by my mother a few years ago. My son learned the song after hearing it a few times. It’s fun to sing!

And Advent is almost here. I received some of our new calendars, as I mentioned in this post. We’re also preparing our New Year and Advent resolutions, and getting our house ready for the change of Liturgical seasons (and year). I hope to get some simple New Year party favors for next Sunday’s meal.

Dh and I are really looking for ways to do Christian charity. If you haven’t seen Advent Giving and Help Is On Its Way for some ideas on how to help some families. But I’m also looking for some tangible ways my son can get involved. It will just be little, but he needs some outside focus on giving the gift of love to others, and see how others don’t have all the blessings he does. So I’m seeking some local ideas this week.

I’m on the mend from mastitis, recovering from travel 3 out of the last 4 weekends, so I’m hunkering down and focusing inward.

Solemnity of Christ the King

Today marks the closing of Ordinary Time of the Liturgical Year, celebrated with the solemnity of Christ the King. Next week is the beginning of Advent.

Mary Ellen has a wonderful summary about this feast, with ideas to celebrate at O Night Divine blog.

I’m in minimalist mode in preparing for the baby. But while straightening up some things in the basement I came across a simple Christ the King image/activity I scanned and we’re using today. Enjoy.