Tea at Trianon: The Courtesy of God

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, November 14, 2013

The Courtesy of God

From Vultus Christi:

At the same time this Thrice–Holy God, enthroned in glory and adored by angelic choirs, “shall not cry, nor have respect to person, neither shall his voice be heard abroad. The bruised reed He shall not break, and smoking flax He shall not quench” (Isaias 42:2–3). When you go to adoration, do not expect to be pressured by God. Be certain, rather, of encountering a God who is infinitely gentle. He is humble, courteous, willing to wait, and unwilling to impose Himself on the one who approaches Him. Who is there upon the altar if not the Lamb who, in meekness and silence, went to His most bitter Passion? (Read more.)