Tea at Trianon: The Beauty of the Liturgy

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, October 20, 2020

The Beauty of the Liturgy

From The Catholic World Report:

Fr. James Jackson is a priest of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, and the author of Nothing Superfluous: An Explanation of the Symbolism of the Rite of St. Gregory the Great (Redbrush, 2017). In that book (and elsewhere), he writes eloquently and illuminatingly about the rituals and symbols of the Traditional Latin Mass, demonstrating that every gesture, every symbol, every second of silence, is packed with meaning and profound intent.

Fr. Jackson recently corresponded with Catholic World Report about beauty, its evangelizing power, and the special and important role of beauty in the Sacred Liturgy.

CWR: Why are we attracted to beautiful things?

Fr. James Jackson, FSSP: This is an essential question. It may be answered first by a practical explanation. The ancient Babylonians and later the Greeks came up with notions about a “golden ratio” and a “golden rectangle.” It makes for some fascinating reading. Few read about these things; they see credit cards and television screens and books and iPods shaped in rectangles, but rarely question why some many things are in that shape. Researchers have noticed that people process information inside rectangles – like text in a paragraph – readily and efficiently. They speak of a lighter cognitive load, so a book looks to us as if it is easy to read.

This is also all over nature. Fractals – irregular and self-similar geometry – occur everywhere in nature, from coastlines to snowflakes and leaf veins. They are even in our lungs. We respond to these patterns so well that just looking at them can reduce our stress levels as much as 60%. (Read more.)