Tea at Trianon: Thoughts on Independence 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

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Thoughts on Independence Day

From Scott Richert:

On Independence Day, it is common to invoke God's blessing on our country, and rightly so. Sometimes, however, we might begin to regard the United States as uniquely blessed, in a way that other countries aren't. "God bless America" can become a command, and not a request. And if it does, then we lose sight of the reason why God blesses any nation: because of that nation's fidelity to Him.

John Carroll, archbishop of Baltimore and the first bishop appointed in the United States, truly understood that. In 1791, he wrote a Prayer for Government that puts the relationship between God, country, and the civic order in the proper perspective. The truth taught by the Church is the guarantee of political order, and so Archbishop Carroll begins by praying for Church, then for the guidance of the Holy Spirit for all the leaders of our country, at every level. He prays then for the living, that they may live lives worthy of eternal life, and finally for the dead, that they may have eternal rest. (Read entire post.)

julygirl said...: We must continue to love and pray for our country and its' leaders just as we would for a person whom we love but is imperfect.; July 4, 2012 at 12:10:00 PM EDT