Tea at Trianon: The Grid of Grace

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, August 8, 2016

The Grid of Grace

From Catholic Man:

So much is spoken, in our times, of an epidemic of illiteracy when it comes to our faith. We place blame on poor catechesis – and that may be part of the problem – but one rarely hears about the lack of “hunger for the truth.” Yes, we must educate, but where is the “hunger” to “be” educated? That comes from someone who is filled with grace!

Not only that, but where is the “real talk” of spiritual warfare? You see? I believe evil is running unabated in our times because, as the passage from Matthew states, there is a spiritual emptiness that evil has come to fill.

An image I often use to describe this is, “Power Grid of Grace.” There was a time, only 50 years ago, when we saw …

Monasteries sprinkled across the country

Brimming Catholic Schools everywhere

Convents flourishing

Homes filled with prayer and devotions

Churches open all day as many made “chapel visits”

Parish devotions, such as Holy Hours

Amazingly reverent Masses everyday

The image used in the post (above) is one that shows the many cell towers throughout the United States. It’s not hard to imagine that, at one time, a similar map to this would indicate all of those powerhouses of grace mentioned above … a kind of “Power Grid of Grace.” Friends … the “Grid of Grace” is down – a kind of supernatural force field – and the darkness of evil is penetrating our land at an alarming rate.

We keep trying all of our manmade remedies to “evangelize,” and we continue to come up empty.

Looking at them, Jesus said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God, because all things are possible with God.” Mark 10:27
Program after program, book after book, DVD after DVD, and the same diminishing amount of folks are drawn to these. All the while we persist with our cheesy, effeminate, horizontal, man-centered liturgies that do little, if anything, to assist souls to “participate” in the grace offered in the Source and Summit of our faith … it is like sprinkling water upon a rock. Uninspired, these souls remain empty and vulnerable to the infiltration of the darkness of evil. (Read more.)