On the Feast of Christ the King

 The Holy Infant of Prague.
Fotobanka ČTK, René Fluger.

Today, on the great feast of Christ the King, we launch the first of a new series of posts on the life of Christ according to the Gospel of St Luke. You can read this Life (and others in the series) by clicking here: 👉 The Life of Christ Our Lord.

The Life includes the Douay-Rheims [1] and Vulgate texts of the Gospel, followed by annotations which make extensive use of the commentary by Cornelius Cornelii a Lapide (1567-1637). The illustrations are by Jacques-Joseph Tissot (1836-1902), except where otherwise stated.

[1] With revisions by Bishop Richard Challoner, 1749-52. Taken from a hardcopy of the 1899 Edition by the John Murphy Company. See here for DRBO site.

The Holy Infant of Prague

👈This is the original statue of the Holy Infant, Lord Jesus Christ our King.   It was given by Princess Polyxena von Lobkowicz to the Discalced Carmelites in 1628 and is now located in the Discalced Carmelite Church of Our Lady of Victories in Prague. The author is blessed to have a statue of the Holy Infant received as a gift from the late Fr Dodd, parish priest of Corpus Christi Church, Maiden Lane (Covent Garden).

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The Icon of Vladimir. ?12th century.
  Church of St. Nicholas, Moscow.

I offer our work on St Luke's Gospel as a gift to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, our gentle Queen and Mother, with a petition that she present it as an act of reparation to her Divine Son so that He, in His mercy, may heal the wounds, repair the damage and undo the scandal caused by sins.

O Lord Jesus Christ our King who hast said, "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened,"[1] through the intercession of Mary, Your Most Holy Mother, I knock, I seek, I ask that my prayer be granted.

Domine Jesu Christe, Rex noster, qui dixisti: Petite, et dabitur vobis; quærite, et invenietis; pulsate, et aperietur vobis,[1] per intercessionem Mariæ Sanctissimæ Matris Tuæ, pulso, quæro et peto ut deprecationes meas exaudias.

[1] [Luc. xi. 19]

The Icon of Vladimir

This ancient Icon of the Mother of God is said to be based on one painted by the Evangelist St Luke himself on a board taken from the table used by the Holy Family in Nazareth. In 1131, the icon was sent from Constantinople to Rus and was installed in the Devichi monastery in Vyshgorod. In 1155, it was brought to the city of Vladimir and was installed in the Dormition cathedral. It was from this time that the icon received its name of the Vladimir Icon. The icon was first brought to Moscow in 1395 where it is now housed in the Church of St. Nicholas.

Let us pray that our Blessed Mother will gather together her faithful sons from the East and the West so as to be reunited as once they were in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

WE fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God;

 despise not our petitions in our necessities,

 but deliver us always from all dangers,

O glorious and blessed Virgin. Amen.

 

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix.

 Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus,

sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper,

 Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.