Tea at Trianon: Grotto of Lourdes in Emmitsburg, Maryland

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, February 11, 2008

Grotto of Lourdes in Emmitsburg, Maryland

I just returned from a brief but refreshing pilgrimage to the Grotto of Lourdes in Emmitsburg, Maryland. I have written of the Grotto before, as a spot favored by St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. I went there this past weekend with my mother to pray for some special intentions and gain the Lourdes Jubilee Indulgence. The Grotto is a serene and beautiful spot even in the dead of winter. We were amazed at all the youth groups who were there, praying. On Saturday, there was Mass followed by confessions and Adoration. I confessed to an elderly priest, Fr. George Reed, whom I remembered from high school days. He had given me some helpful spiritual direction when I was seventeen; there he was at the Grotto, still hearing confessions after so many years. There are few things quite like a pilgrimage for putting everything in perspective. Here is an article from the chaplain, Fr. Jack, about a family from Kabul who recently visited the Grotto. People come from all over to St. Mary's Mountain in order to find healing, peace, and inspiration.

UPDATE: The Grotto was vandalized over the weekend. How terrible.

Meanwhile, 70,000 pilgrims celebrate the 150 anniversary of the first apparition in Lourdes, France. Share