The Bishops' Conference of Scotland

https://youtu.be/1drtim65OA0?si=Bg6qa5dSFO0dev28


Traditional Roman Catholic hymn, honouring Our Lord as King of King and Lord of Lords.

Feast of Christ the King
Today’s first reading presents a heavenly yet human Son of Man. The Psalm portrays God as a majestic and powerful ruler. The reading from the early passages of the Book of Revelations presents a transcendent Jesus. The Gospel has Pilate questioning Jesus about His kingship.

Since my youth I have struggled with my mental images of Christ the King. I found it much easier to picture God the Father in the role of King. Perhaps my idea of a king grows out of the depictions of rulers many centuries ago that I have been exposed to in the visual arts. My imagination draws me in the direction of seeing Jesus as leader rather than a ruler, as someone on a mission serving the greater good rather than as a commander. One place where did I feel consolation with the image of Christ as King was in Ignatius of Loyola’s meditation on The Two Standards. He was not a King focused on riches or pride. He was a leader bringing his troops to virtue. This was the King that I felt drawn to follow. To this day, I find Ignatius’ chivalrous depiction of the King calling his noble knights to service to be one of the high points of his Spiritual Exercises.

Reading the passage recounting Daniel’s vision, I have the image of a heavenly yet human figure emerging. This seems to be in contrast with the depiction of earthly kings as beasts found in the text preceding today’s first reading.

I find myself embracing the words from the second reading, “I am the Alpha and the Omega" says the Lord God. While we end this liturgical year with John’s Gospel, I am reminded how this Gospel began: In the beginning was the Word. I am moved to see the Christ not a stagnant King, but as transcendent through history. That is Christ as God made manifest in this world. A special physical presence in history, but even more as a felt enduring presence in the past, in the world today, and in the future.

The Feast of Christ the King was established in 1925 in response to an increasingly secular world. In his letter establishing this feast, Pope Pius XI seems to express thoughts like those found in Ignatius’ meditation: “This kingdom (of Christ) is spiritual and is concerned with spiritual things …. This kingdom is opposed to none other than to that of Satan and to the power of darkness. (The Kingdom of Christ) demands of its subjects a spirit of detachment from riches and earthly things, and a spirit of gentleness. They must hunger and thirst after justice, and more than this, they must deny themselves and carry the cross.”

At the end of this liturgical year, my prayer today is an examen.

To Christ bearing Your standard of the magnanimous King,
I find myself reminded of Your Transcendent Presence.
Allow me to keep Your standard in sight and to be aware of how You are acting in my life.
I think of how often my mind and my actions are dominated by things without lasting value. I find my prayer increasingly becomes an intercession for forgiveness for my past and current failings. I find that, even in my service, at times I lose the focus as to why I am doing what I am doing. I worry when I find myself drifting away and I find peace in Your repeated welcoming and forgiveness of me, Your wayward knight.
I ask that You guide me in finding consolation and using it as tool in identifying the direction of my call.

Michael Cherney
Creighton University

📰BREAKING NEWS - The International Criminal Court (ICC) have issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas' Military Commander Mohammed Deif.

⚖️The ICC has said there are "reasonable grounds” that the men bare "criminal responsibility" for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

🚫The UK must halt all arms sales to Israel or risk being complicit war crimes. It is clear that a ceasefire is needed now more than ever to stop violations of international law, crimes against humanity, and the blatant disregard for human life.

📢Join us this Saturday at Glasgow Green to add your voice to the call to stop the war.

🪧Justice & Peace Scotland will gather at 11.15am at the Doulton Fountain before proceeding to the McLennan Arch for 11.30am.

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/presentation-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary/


This feast celebrates Mary's presentation in the Temple by her parents Anna and Joachim. While it is not mentioned in Scripture, there is early evidence that this event was celebrated in both the Eastern and Western Churches.

Last year, on 26 November, the Holy Father, Pope Francis, spoke the following words at the celebration of the Angelus in St Peter’s Square;
Yesterday tormented Ukraine commemorated the Holodomor, the genocide perpetrated by the Soviet regime which, 90 years ago, caused millions of people to starve to death. That lacerating wound, instead of healing, is made even more painful by the atrocities of the war that continues to make that dear nation suffer. For all peoples torn apart by conflicts, let us continue to pray tirelessly, because prayer is the force of peace that stops the spiral of hatred, that breaks the cycle of revenge and opens up unexpected paths of
reconciliation.
Ukraine has been the focus of world attention since February 2022, when it was brutally attacked by Russia in an unprovoked escalation of its invasion and occupation of Ukrainian territory which began in February 2014. The message of the Pope in the context of the continuing war in Ukraine holds true today as the Holodomor is once again commemorated on the fourth Saturday in November. Please remember in your prayers the souls of the men and women, the young and the elderly, who lost their lives in this purposed famine of 1930s under the Soviet regime.
Also continue to pray for our sisters and brothers who in these last few years have fled harm’s way from war in Ukraine and have found a safe haven in the United Kingdom and in other nations. Let us pray that the trauma being inflicted in our days may cease, and that the wounds of the past may heal but never be forgotten.
May Mary, Queen of Peace, intercede for us with her Son for a lasting peace.

Historical note
The Ukrainian Famine or Holodomor (death by starvation) was one of the most tragic events in early 20th century history. This man-made famine inflicted by the Soviet regime under the dictator Josyf Stalin saw many millions of people intentionally starved to death between 1932 and 1933. Stalin’s plan of forced collectivisation was to be implemented whatever the cost. Even though harvests were bountiful, Ukrainian farmers were not allowed to keep even one head of wheat, all was confiscated! Although the Soviet information machine tried to hide its criminal actions, gradually reports began to find their way into newsrooms in the west. The world community largely chose to ignore these reports, refusing to believe that in modern times such an atrocity could be committed against a people. It was unthinkable that Ukraine, considered the breadbasket of Europe, would see millions of Ukrainian peasant farmers starve to death, just as it would be unfathomable that in less than a decade another genocide would strike at the heart of Europe. We can only imagine the despair of the dying masses: as scripture says “God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me. You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me.” (Job 30:19-21).