Christ the King Novena
Get ready for the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year and the great solemnity of Christ the King with this novena.
The Novena
The Solemnity of Christ the King takes place on the final Sunday of the year, instituted by Pope XI in response to communism, atheism, and secularisation. For nine days during the novena, receive:
👑 A Scripture passage themed around Christ the King
💭 A reflection on the Scripture passage
🙏 A novena prayer with a chance to ask for any petitions you have
About Christ the King
If Jesus Christ is a king, his kingdom, as he declares to Pilate, is not of this world. The Kingdom of God is not some theocratic state to be achieved by force of arms and a clericalised polity, as some in the past have thought. Insofar as God's kingdom is visibly present in the world, it is that thing we call the Church.
But it is not by any means confined to the obvious and outward structures of the Church, although we have Jesus's assurance that the Spirit will not wholly abandon these. Outside these visible things, God is always present to his people, and acts by means we cannot see or know, except by the clear evidence of love shown and suffering accepted: of love that is stronger than death. This is the sign of God's kingdom.
Any who bear this token are in some sense subjects of Christ the King. But he is a king who rules by mercy and by forgiveness. It is not for us to be jealous of his mercy to those whom we do not recognise as our fellow-subjects, or our fellow-Christians. It is enough that we ask his mercy for ourselves, and for the world.
Find out more...
This novena comes from the Catholic Truth Society book A Book of Novenas where you can find a whole treasure trove of novenas structured around the Church's year, with novenas to various saints, for numerous intentions, Scriptural novenas, and novenas to coincide with special feasts of the Church's year.