Tea at Trianon: Newsletter, February 2019

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

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Newsletter, February 2019

From yesterday:

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy St. Valentine's Day! St. Valentine was an early Roman martyr who risked his life to unite young couples in holy matrimony.

Today, February 11, is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Aside from being the site of the famous apparitions of 1858, Lourdes has an interesting history, surprisingly turbulent at times for a place that is truly in the middle of nowhere. Most of the events were focused on the Château-Fort de Lourdes, the old castle which was at one time a Moorish stronghold, although its origins go back to antiquity. When I first visited Lourdes in April 1994 the castle intrigued me almost as much as did the shrines. I had never heard of it until arriving there, and when our guide took us up inside, the view of the Pyrenees was breathtaking. There are all kinds of legends and mysteries associated with the castle, including the caves which lie underneath the edifice. I decided to make it the setting for a novel about the Cathars, since for a time it had been a Cathar fortress.

In spite of heresy and turmoil, it is a spot favored by the Mother of God. In the Roman rite there are many beautiful votive Masses in honor of Our Lady. One of them is "Mother of Fairest Love." I once heard it celebrated around the feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel, and in the homily the priest quoted St. John of the Cross saying that if one wants to have a great love, all one must do is desire a great love, in order to possess it. As Scripture says: "I am the Mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue." Ecclesiasticus 24: 24-25

Please do visit our Trianon Health and Beauty Blog, where we are having a sale on all products.

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Have a blessed Mardi Gras and Shrovetide!
With love and prayers,
Elena at "East of the Sun and West of the Moon"