Christmas at Court

Christmas is almost upon us. As we all know, it is the birth of the King of Kings—second person of the Holy Trinity according to His divine nature, rightful heir to the Davidic kingship of Israel according to His humanity. St. Gabriel the Archangel appeared to the Blessed Virgin Mary; having announced the birth of her son, Jesus, the Heavenly visitor declared: “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end.” (Luke 1:32-33). This Davidic kingship He united at the Last Supper with the Communio of the church He was founding—an action symbolised by the washing of the feet (which in later centuries would become a major ceremony throughout the Christian courts for this reason). Of course, so long as the Church had no temporal home but was an illegal body in all the countries in which she grew, the participation in the kingship of Christ by earthly Sovereigns was purely in potentia, so to speak.  Read Full Article »