Tea at Trianon: Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence

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

Monday, May 23, 2016

Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence

From Church Militant:

Nothing happens in the the universe without God willing and allowing it. This statement must be taken absolutely of everything with the exception of sin. "Nothing occurs by chance in the whole course of our lives" is the unanimous teaching of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, "and God intervenes everywhere."

"I am the Lord," He tells us Himself by the mouth of the prophet Isaias, "and there is none else. I form light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things" (Is. 45:6–7). "It is I who bring both death and life, I who inflict wounds and heal them," He said to Moses (Deut. 32:39). "The Lord killeth and maketh alive," it is written in the Canticle of Anna, the mother of Samuel, "He bringeth down to the tomb and He bringeth back again; the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, he humbleth and he exalteth" (1 Kings 2:6–7). "Shall there be evil (disaster, affliction) in a city which the Lord hath not done?" asks the prophet Amos (Amos 3:6). "Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches are from Go," Solomon proclaims (Ecclus. 11:14). And so on in numerous other passages of Scripture.

Perhaps you will say that while this is true of certain necessary effects, like sickness, death, cold and heat, and other accidents due to natural causes which have no liberty of action, the same cannot be said in the case of things that result from the free will of man. For if, you will object, someone slanders me, robs me, strikes me, persecutes me, how can I attribute his conduct to the will of God, Who far from wishing me to be treated in such a manner, expressly forbids it? So the blame, you will conclude, can only be laid on the will of man, on his ignorance or malice. This is the defense behind which we try to shelter from God and excuse our lack of courage and submission.

It is quite useless for us to try and take advantage of this way of reasoning as an excuse for not surrendering to Providence. God Himself has refuted it, and we must believe on His word that in events of this kind as in all others, nothing occurs except by His order and permission. (Read more.)

julygirl said...: In the post World War II climate of the 1950's there was a surge of religious faith and churches were filled. Good had overpowered evil and one felt God's hand in it. This was short lived for by the mid 60's and on into the present time the dark side of human nature has slowly crept into America the Beautiful, blotting out the sea to shining sea brilliance. Faith that God will bring good out of evil seems to have waned, and belief in an omnipotent power is rarely found especially in young people.; May 23, 2016 at 3:33:00 PM EDT