Tea at Trianon: Finding God's Will

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

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Finding God's Will

From Seton Magazine:

By now, many of this year’s high school graduates have begun their first semester at college. Others are searching for a job or discerning their vocations. For some, it’s an exciting time, filled with the promise of a bright future. But for others, the future can be a daunting prospect. That’s hardly surprising, given the contradictory messages coming from society! One minute, we are practically superhuman, capable of success in anything so long as we believe in ourselves. The next, we are helpless victims caught in the twin fists of Fate and Fortune. Society has a ready-made solution for this terrifying contradiction: mediocrity. In fact, it has even invented a System to easily attain mediocrity, a System that all high school graduates are expected to follow:

Go to college

Get a degree

Get a job that will support the American lifestyle

Make money in relative security

It doesn’t matter whether the young adult in question is a man or a woman; whether he or she is called to marriage, singlehood, or consecrated life; or whether, most importantly, this is the path God has destined for him or her....

Abandonment to God’s Will is the only strategy that guarantees life success. If, by abandoning ourselves to His Will, we appear a victor in the world’s eyes, we win. If, by abandoning ourselves to His Will, we appear a loser in the world’s eyes, we still win. No “System” is right for everyone. Our society is wrong to assume that. In the end, only God knows what path will make us happy, and also save our soul. If we truly give our will to God, all that is left for us to do are two things, and they are very simple. The first is to “glory in our infirmities,” as St. Paul would say, for it’s precisely our weakness that allows God to work such marvels through us! (Read more.)