Tea at Trianon: Vigil of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, December 7, 2006

Vigil of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

Feminine Genius has more on the Nativity film and doctrine of the virgin birth, with commentary by Father Angelo Mary of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. He explains it better than I ever could. As Teresa of Avila often said, there is nothing like the guidance of a learned priest.

Here is an excerpt from the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception:

Holy Mary, Mother of God, I firmly believe in thy Immaculate Conception. I bless God for having granted thee this glorious privilege. I thank Him a thousand times for having
taught it to me by the infallible voice of the Church. Receive my heart, O Immaculate Virgin; I give it to thee without reserve; purify it; guard it; never give it back to me,
preserve it in thy love and in the love of Jesus during time and eternity. AMEN.

V. Thy name, O Mary, is as oil poured out.
R. Thy servants have loved thee exceedingly.

Let us pray.
O God, Who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, did prepare a worthy habitation for Thy Son: we beseech Thee, that as in view of the death of that Son, Thou didst preserve her from all stain of sin, so Thou wouldst enable us, being made pure by her intercession, to come unto Thee. Through the same Christ Our Lord. AMEN.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...: I saw only a short clip of the movie and thought how tragic that Mary should
be depicted as having the attitudes of a LA Valley Girl. My daughters, who
were not even destined to be Queen of Heaven, never displayed such behavior.
I had and have no intention of seeing it. I would find it too irritating.
Even The Passion of the Christ bothered me in the scene that depicted Jesus'
familiarity with his Mother which I felt was unrealistic even for modern
times.; December 7, 2006 at 9:03:00 AM EST
Anonymous said...: I am having the same problem with halo scan!

I am glad these doctrinal issues are being clarified in blogdom by a priest.; December 7, 2006 at 2:20:00 PM EST