¡Viva Cristo Rey!

With the foolishness of the American election season upon us, with Jacobins, Whigs, Fabians, and Bonapartists of all varieties trying to sell their vacuous selves into the highest offices in the land with but carefully calculated buzzwords, and thus to further legitimate in the eyes of the general public their rebellion against the divine and reasonable and just order of human society--even the supposed conservatives among them ("Tea Party?")--and also with the 15th anniversary of the referendum that would have made been the first step of making a republic out of my beloved Québec being defeated by a razor-thin margin yesterday, it is providential that Mother Church, according to the traditional calendar, presents to us in solemn memorial the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, before Whom even the mightiest empire, with all its military force and sweeping plans for social improvement, is of as little substance as an anthill is to us.

Lest we ever think the social kingship of Christ may come about through statist means:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".

Sic transit gloria mundi. Yet our sovereign King shall remain.


Thanks to James MacMillan and Musica Intima for the above.

Most sweet Jesus, Redeemer of the human race, look down upon us humbly prostrate before you. We are yours, and yours we wish to be; but to be more surely united with you, behold each one of us freely consecrates himself today to your Most Sacred Heart. Many indeed have never known you; many, too, despising your precepts, have rejected you. Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them to your Sacred Heart. Be King, O Lord, not only of the faithful who have never forsaken you, but also of the prodigal children who have abandoned you; grant that they may quickly return to their Father's house, lest they die of wretchedness and hunger. Be King of those who are deceived by erroneous opinions, or whom discord keeps aloof, and call them back to the harbor of truth and the unity of faith, so that soon there may be but one flock and one Shepherd [particularly on this "Reformation Day"]. Grant, O Lord, to your Church assurance of freedom and immunity from harm; give tranquility of order to all nations; make the earth resound from pole to pole with one cry: Praise to the divine Heart that wrought our salvation; to it be glory and honor for ever. Amen.