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Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

solemnity Ordinary Time

Holy Day of Obligation

Mass Readings → Liturgy of the Hours →

Selected Mass Reading

Second Reading — 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28

But now Christ is risen from the dead, the firstfruits of them that sleep: For by a man came death: and by a man the resurrection of the dead. And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But every one in his own order: the firstfruits, Christ: then they that are of Christ, who have believed in his coming. Afterwards the end: when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father: when he shall have brought to nought all principality and power and virtue. For he must reign, until he hath put all his enemies under his feet. And the enemy, death, shall be destroyed last: For he hath put all things under his feet. And whereas he saith: And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then the Son also himself shall be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

Feast Days

Saint Cecilia
Saint Cecilia Virgin, Martyr 180–230

Saint Cecilia was born in Rome, traditionally into a noble family, in the early centuries of the Church. From her youth she belonged wholly to Christ, and though her parents arranged her marriage to a pagan nobleman named Valerian, she kept a vow of virginity. On her wedding day, as music sounded around her, Cecilia “sang in her heart to the Lord,” a witness of prayerful love that later made her the Church’s beloved patron of music and musicians. According to ancient tradition, Cecilia led Valerian to seek baptism from Pope Urban I; he and others close to her—Valerian’s brother Tiburtius and the soldier Maximus—embraced the faith and suffered martyrdom. Cecilia herself was condemned and, after a brutal attempt on her life, lived three more days, using them to commend her home to the Church and to encourage believers. She was buried in the Catacomb of Callixtus and later honored at Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, built on the site associated with her life and death. Her feast day is November 22.