Tea at Trianon: Church Ladies

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

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Church Ladies

From Dynamic Women of Faith:

There was a terrible fire at the parish. Most of the church was damaged or destroyed. I went to Adoration (held in the gym of the school) the next morning in the frigid cold, wondering what I would find.

I shouldn’t have wondered at all… there they were, the warriors wearing veils, winter coats and thick boots. Warriors holding rosaries, and praying in earnest. They didn’t fret, or cry, they just hunkered down to fight the good fight. They were, as they always are, the church ladies.

Some people think of the Blessed Virgin Mary as timid, but not me. I see her following her Son, heart breaking, body aching and fighting her way up to Calvary. Others turn away in grief or fear, but Our Dear Mother looks upon her Son, sharing in His suffering. She never gives in to fear, but fights on. (Read more.)