Tea at Trianon: Holy Cross Day

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, September 13, 2007

Holy Cross Day

Tomorrow (September 14) we celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. In many places, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will be offered in the "extraordinary form" of the Latin rite, including the Shrine in Hanceville. EWTN will broadcast it live in the morning. (Thanks, Joshua!)

We are marked by the sign of the cross at our baptism. For the Christian, there is no escaping the cross. We elude one cross only to find another. And yet with God's help we can bear it with joy, for the cross is the ladder to paradise.

If we have been given a few "light" crosses, than it is so that we have the strength to pray for those whose crosses are unbearable, such as the exploited children. And for those suffering very close to home, such as Dr. William Petit, whose family were so horribly murdered, not quite two months ago.

Here is the Litany of the True Cross.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...: God doesn't want us to try and escape the crosses He has given us to bear.

And isn't your book, "The Paradise Tree" referring to the Cross?; September 13, 2007 at 12:56:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Yes, and yes!; September 13, 2007 at 1:35:00 PM EDT