Tea at Trianon: Teenagers and Mass

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 28, 2017

Teenagers and Mass

From our friend Katrina at Aleteia:

Children may not love school, homework, chores, or even vegetables but we make them go to school, do their homework, clean their rooms, and eat their veggies. Healthy food makes for a sound body and an education makes a sound mind. Church, therefore, nourishes the soul. It’s our parental duty to see that their spiritual development isn’t neglected. I would place a higher importance on faith than I would on vegetables, a clean room, and yes, even good grades. So when a parent asks me if they should require that their child go to Mass, my answer is always “absolutely.” I have heard the argument that if you force a child to go to church they will grow up hating it, yet we refuse to apply that same logic to other areas of our children’s’ lives. If we force a child to go to school they will grow up hating learning, said no parent ever. I think the difference here is that children know why we force them to eat vegetables and study hard — they know it’s ultimately for their own good. What as parents are we doing to ensure our children know that going to Mass is also for their own good? (Read more.)