Tea at Trianon: Corpus Christi

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, June 7, 2007

Corpus Christi

In Pennsylvania we will be celebrating the Solemnity of the Lord's Body and Blood on Sunday, although traditionally it is kept today. Hallowed Ground and Vultus Christi have some wonderful posts.

Sion, lift thy voice and sing:
Praise thy Savior and thy King;
Praise with hymns thy Shepherd true:
Dare thy most to praise Him well;
For He doth all praise excel;
None can ever reach His due.
(from Lauda Sion) Share

2 comments:

Michelle Therese said...: We don't have Corpus Christi processions anymore. The whole liturgy has been cheapened and dumbed down. In my original Catholic church back home in Massachusetts (Our Lady of Czestochowa in Turners Falls) we had EVERYTHING! Then I moved away and since then I feel more like a Protestant then a Catholic. (That's not a judgement on non-Cathoilcs - just an observation that all of the beauty surrounding the feast days and the liturgy has been stripped away.) People wonder why folks are leaving the Church. Is it any wonder?? When you strip it and sterilize it and fill it with horrid music why would people feel as if they were in the right place? They will be filled with doubts instead!; June 9, 2007 at 4:07:00 AM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: I know, it's unbelievable.; June 9, 2007 at 9:12:00 AM EDT