Tea at Trianon: The God Box

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

Saturday, March 17, 2012

The God Box

The review of a book on the power of prayer.

Mary Lou Quinlan talks about how she discovered a bunch of little boxes that her mother stored away secretly throughout her lifetime. These contained years of accumulated bits of papers with prayers written on them. Her mom wrote prayers for everyone she knew; short- almost on-the-run little notes that she carefully folded into minute bitsies and put in these ‘God boxes’. The ‘letting go to God to take care of things’- experience in itself is what is also amazing about the whole process.

Mary Lou learned about her mother’s strengths, care, love and ultimate faith through this legacy her mom left behind for her. Beautifully written, I loved reading this book. Inspiring and refreshing, this idea to leave it upto God by physically writing out prayers and releasing them into the God Box for Him to take care of sounds so... relieving. (Read entire post.)