Tea at Trianon: The Year of Mercy and the Jubilee Year

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, August 4, 2015

The Year of Mercy and the Jubilee Year

From Abbey-Roads:

So many people fear punishment and judgement - but this is the time of mercy.

The Jewish Shmita/Shemitah is a Sabbath year. There are many books and articles about it, likewise many speculations that something bad is supposed to happen - economic collapse and all of that. I haven't read a lot about it, but it seems to me the fears surrounding the Shmita and Jubilee Year are based in part on a sort of Protocols of the Elders of Zion mentality.

That said, I think it no coincidence Pope Francis called the Holy Year of Mercy at this time - which corresponds nicely with the Shemitah/Jubilee Year in Judaism. The Holy Year of Mercy will be a time of extraordinary graces. It is not a curse.

“I say to you, not seven times but seventy times seven." - Matt. 18:22

I may be wrong, but it seems Jesus used the reference to the Sabbath/Jubilee year to demonstrate to Peter that the Divine Mercy is without limit - even when a brother "wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, ‘I am sorry,’ you should forgive him.” - Luke 17:4

Seventy years ago, the Concentration Camps were liberated in Nazi Germany. Seventy years strikes me as rather significant ... why?

The recent revelations concerning the Planned Parenthood abortion industry selling human body parts and tissue for research and commercial use: It is so evocative of Nazi Germany. The Nazis used human beings for scientific research, they used human beings for all sorts of industry. They exterminated the human beings they could not use or who were simply undesirable or unwanted. These were tortured and starved to death, others gassed. The otherwise able-bodied human resources were worked to death.

Seventy years ago.

When the camps were liberated - it is said Eisenhower was so distressed by the horror, he ordered German citizens to tour and see what had been done. It is argued that he didn't do it, but rather Patton did it. It doesn't matter who ordered it - it was done. It was done because the German citizenry claimed they did not know about the atrocities. It was done because even American soldiers didn't believe it. It was done so that journalists would report and record it, because Eisenhower knew it would be dismissed as anti-Nazi propaganda. (Read more.)