Tea at Trianon: Holy Motherhood

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, September 12, 2015

Holy Motherhood

From Catholic Moms Group:

Pope St. John Paul II said that “As the family goes, so goes society.” Look at the state of society nowadays, then look at the state of families, and finally, look at the state of mothers, the hearts of the families… They are stressed out, pulled in a million directions with many demands placed on them so that they get distracted from their primary vocation – Holy Motherhood.

When my son was 5, I really felt the need to connect with other Catholic moms. I was raised Catholic, but always kind of felt alone in the world. When I had my son, I found there was no shortage of parenting advice to be found in the secular world.

For the first few years, I read a lot of Today’s Parent magazine. It was all useful and interesting, with all sorts of ideas from how to organize your baby’s nursery, to fun crafts and family outings, tasty new recipes to help curb picky eating, and even various disciplinary techniques for certain behaviours, However, there always seemed to be an important component missing, which was how to raise a faith-filled child with strong character.

At the time, I was doing the best I could with what very little I had. We attended Mass every Sunday (though we knew very few families), taught our son his prayers (which we said morning, noon, and night), and my husband and I even taught the R.C.I.A. class at the parish.

Then, my sister-in-law introduced me to small group of Catholic home-schooling moms in our area. That was extremely eye-opening and amazing. I just couldn’t believe that there were Catholic mothers out there actually practicing their faith and passing it on to their children in such a beautiful way. They gathered together and prayed together and supported each other. I desperately wanted that type of fellowship with those types of moms. The problem was, that I didn’t feel called to home school and so could not meet up with them as often as I would have liked.

My son attended a small Catholic school in our neighborhood, where, sadly, there was a great dearth of Catholic moms. I lamented to my spiritual director that there was a huge vacuum when it came to fellowship among Catholic moms in general. I wanted what the home-schoolers seemed to have, and I thought that other mothers (home schooling or not) needed that as well. How wonderful it would be to have a group for like-minded Catholic mothers that offered prayer, support and encouragement to each other as we strove to raise our children in the faith, amidst all the secular world’s influences! My spiritual director simply asked “Why don’t you start one?” “Oh no, I couldn’t,” was my automatic reply. (Read more.)