Tea at Trianon: Vexilla Regis

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, March 17, 2008

Vexilla Regis

Roman Christendom offers the history of the ancient Vespers hymn for Passiontide. It is sad that most Catholics in the U.S. will not have the benefit of hearing such a jewel of a hymn during Holy Week in their parishes. It is always possible to find a good CD so that the classic hymns can be played and learned at home.

The Western Confucian links to an article on the meaning of Celtic spirituality.

Paula sent me a link to the trailer of a new Romanian film about the Communist prisons of the mid-twentieth century, with the following description:

It's a movie about communism, a movie about struggle, a movie about faith in God. Arrested for being a member of a democratic party, Nicoleta Valeria Bruteanu enters the Communist Romanian prisons in 1949, and remains detained until 1953. There she finds the time she needs to think about her mistakes in life and tries to regain her faith in God. Soon faith united all cell mates and helped them endure and in the end survive the horrors of the Communist prison system. The title of the movie is at the same time the conclusion of the story - the suffering in the prison brought Nicoleta closer to God, closer to people around her, made her a better person. The movie its a little graphic, but the director was somewhat forced to include such scenes to be able to reveal the brutality of the tortures methods. The English dubbing works well and most actors did an excellent job. I highly recommend this movie to understand better the suffering which the people in Eastern Europe and Russia were forced to endure.

Fr. Blake asks for prayers during Holy Week for all those who are being tortured. The accounts of such horrors are disturbing indeed, especially since it is happening now.

Fr. Mark reflects upon the liturgy of Holy Week:

Our own experience of struggle and of wrestling with evil allows us to enter into the prayer of Christ given us in the Propers of today’s Mass, not as spectators looking on from the sidelines, but as participants. Today’s Introit is taken from Psalm 34, a passionate appeal for vindication. “Judge, O Lord, those that wrong me, fight against those that fight against me: take hold of arms and shield, and arise to help me, O Lord, the strength of my salvation” (Ps 34:1-2). This is the prayer of the suffering Christ to the Father; because it is His prayer, it is ours. “In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to Him Who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard for His godly fear” (Heb 5:7). It is precisely this prayer of Christ, His costly, agonizing prayer “out of the depths” (Ps 129:1), that is given us in the psalms....

The sacrament of the Word gives us the prayer of Christ. We, by ingesting the words of the psalms, allow Christ’s prayer to indwell us as it indwells the whole Church who breathes it forth again and again in the power of the Holy Spirit. The sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood gives us the whole mystery of Christ’s blessed Passion and glorious Resurrection; it gives us Christ himself. He comes to live out His once-and-for-all Mystery again and again in us, uniting us in one Spirit to himself. Let us receive both Word and Sacrament today confident of the glorious outcome of every bitter struggle with sin and death. We shall see Him again in Galilee, even as He promised.