Tea at Trianon: Month of the Sacred Heart

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

Friday, June 1, 2007

Month of the Sacred Heart

The month of June is traditionally dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Here is an excerpt from Love, Peace and Joy by the Reverend André Prévot:

The source of devotion to the Sacred Heart is love-- that is to say, the Heart of Jesus would give us this devotion as a last effort of His love, and the most perfect gift that He can bestow. It is love which desires to give itself without reserve, even to the end of time, to the ends of the earth, to the utmost limits of its affection; love which seeks to warm the world, where charity is now so cold; love which has come to bring fire on earth, and desires at the end of time to consume it entirely in its flames; love which aims more at loving than being loved, for that is the law of love.... In former days, victims had to be consumed by fire that they might rise to Heaven as an odor of sweetness; in like manner the Church must also be consumed by the fire of love, that as a pure victim immolated with Jesus she may rise to Heaven when her sacrifice is accomplished.

(Picture from Vultus Christi)
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...: +JMJ+

Elena, I'm sure you also noticed that we started June with a First Friday this year! :); June 2, 2007 at 12:51:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Yes, Enbrethiliel, I think that is very interesting and very special.; June 2, 2007 at 1:09:00 PM EDT