The Collect, or Opening Prayer, from Sunday’s Mass of Christ the King looks forward to the renewal to freedom of the whole of Creation.
Almighty ever-living God,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the King of the universe,
grant, we pray,
that the whole creation, set free from slavery,
may render your majesty service
and ceaselessly proclaim your praise.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Christ the King is the last Sunday of the Church’s Year. Her next year begins looking forward to the celebration of Christmas, the feast of the Incarnation – God taking flesh in Jesus, to help us to wholeness and holiness; and the Day of Days when he will come again.
The concluding theme of the ‘ old’ year, and those that form the overture of the new are closely related, and they focus on our being made new, re-born, in Christ.
Photograph is of stained glass in the Basilica of the Annunciation, Nazareth. (c) 2013, Allen Morris.
Living Eucharist 