Tea at Trianon: Ghosts and Exorcists

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, April 23, 2016

Ghosts and Exorcists

From Patti Armstrong:

Fearful that her deceased ex-husband was haunting her, a woman went to see Fr. Vincent Lampert, the exorcist for the diocese of Indianapolis, Indiana. Ever since her ex-husband’s death, there were strange goings-on in his old favorite room.

The woman lived alone so when she found furniture moved around, there was no one to blame. It was especially unnerving that an old wedding picture kept showing up on a table. She would put it away only for it to later show up on the table again—sometimes face up, sometimes face down. The marriage had ended because of infidelity. When the man announced he was leaving for another woman, the wife had told him: “Rot in hell!”

Time passed and the man developed a terminal illness. Before his death, he repented of the adultery and asked for his wife’s forgiveness. “Rot in hell!” was her response. She had no intention of forgiving him for the intense pain he had caused her and for destroying their marriage. But now, after his death, it seemed he was making his presence known to his ex-wife. Was he haunting her out of revenge? Or was he actually in hell now and somehow punishing her?

After assessing the situation, Fr. Lampert believed that the man was in purgatory and in need of prayers. God was allowing him to make his presence known to his ex-wife. “I convinced her to forgive him,” Fr. Lampert said. “I prayed for him together with her and everything stopped.” (Read more.)