Tea at Trianon: Marian Amazement

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

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Marian Amazement

Don Marco writes beautifully about holy awe. Father says:

It is significant that in the liturgical and mystical traditions of the Church Jacob's expressions of holy awe become titles of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, Our Lady is the House of God and the Gate of Heaven. Her virginal womb became, by virtue of the Incarnation, a fearful and wondrous place.

Eucharistic and Marian Amazement

He whom the whole world cannot contain enclosed himself within Mary, just as today He encloses Himself within the fragile body of His Church. He who today hides Himself in the mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist, first hid Himself, for our sakes, in Mary's womb. Eucharistic amazement is inseparable from a certain Marian amazement. Both find expression in the liturgy of the Church and in the poetry of her saints.

Abandonment

One's awareness of the mystery of the Blessed Virgin Mary grows in proportion to one's abandonment to the designs of God and to all the dispositions of His providence, however disconcerting these may appear to be at certain moments of life's journey. The act of consecrating or entrusting oneself to Mary is the shortest and surest way of abandoning oneself to all that God permits and ordains.

wendybirde said...: "The act of consecrating or entrusting oneself to Mary is the shortest and surest way of abandoning oneself to all that God permits and ordains."

WOW

Maybe this is why the traditional liturgy is so key. Its not about the Latin there. Its about restoring Mary, the Saints, Eucharistic Adoration, true song, true beauty, true worship (vs a fluffy social gathering)...all connected i feel...; July 10, 2007 at 2:02:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Absolutely, I agree!; July 10, 2007 at 2:04:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...: Lovely post!
SF; July 11, 2007 at 9:56:00 AM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Thanks to Don Marco!!; July 11, 2007 at 9:58:00 AM EDT