Tea at Trianon: Daughters of Jerusalem

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

Monday, April 2, 2007

Daughters of Jerusalem

"Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over me; but weep for yourselves and for your children." (Luke 23:28)

It has occurred to me more and more how many walking wounded there are in our society and in our Church. I am only beginning to comprehend the level of despair and infinite pain that lives in the hearts of an unimaginable number of women whose children were victims of abortion. Many were coerced into making such a "choice." Furthermore, abortion is not just something that happens to a mother and her child; it happens to the entire extended family, whether they are aware of the abortion or not. For Holy Week, as we explore the abyss of suffering, remorse, and redemptive love, here are some sites that offer healing and reconciliation not only to mothers of dead babies but to the fathers and grandparents as well. Share