Tea at Trianon: Spiritual Warfare

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

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Spiritual Warfare

From Roman Catholic Man:

I am convinced we are in the throes of the greatest spiritual war of all times. Here is my assessment…

More Christians have died for their faith in this past century than all other centuries of church history combined.

Since 1973, 1,720,000,000 babies have been sacrificed on the altar of sexual hedonism.

Sex outside of marriage has become the norm.

Birth control is a way of life.

Marriage has been redefined for the first time in civilization.

Illegitimacy rates have soared.

The divorce rate is at epidemic proportions.

Sodomy and homosexuality are celebrated openly.

Grown men must be allowed to share bathrooms with little girls.

With the advent of high speed internet, scores of men, in particular, are now addicted to pornography and masturbation which, in their spiritual death, makes them incapable to serve in this spiritual warfare.

Drug use and addiction has exploded.

Islamic terrorism has erupted worldwide.

Christian values and morals are disparaged as a “problem,” not a remedy in our culture, as religious freedom is under constant assault.

Every major institution has been captured by the radical secular left … The media, Hollywood, TV, universities, public schools, theater, the arts, literature — they relentlessly promote the false gods of sexual hedonism and radical individualism.

In this Information Age (television, internet, etc.), the anti-God indoctrination is, as never before, in hyperdrive.

Within the Church, the intoxication of worldliness means indifference and complacency have laid hold of a multitude of souls, making them quick to scorn anyone sounding an alarm as too dark, too pessimistic and prophets of doom. Furthermore, anyone imploring the faithful to remain steadfast and loyal to Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, is mocked as “rigid.” Why? We are presently passing through the most powerful rebellion ever – greater than the Arian heresy and the Protestant rebellion – of rampant relativism (fueled by ambiguous teaching leading to cafeteria Catholicism) and a “super-secularism” which moved at a lightning speed to remove any sense of the sacred in art, architecture and worship. In the wake of this devastating rebellion, the number of practicing Catholics has plummeted from nearly 80% to under 25% (5% in many parts of Europe), in just the past 50 years. And yet, one still wonders the percentage of those 25% of “practicing” Catholics who are truly devout and 100% orthodox (an unquantifiable number). Do I exaggerate? Is anything above “fake news”? (Read more.)