Tea at Trianon: Hell – and Vocations

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, September 8, 2021

Hell – and Vocations

From The Catholic Thing:

If there is no Hell, or, at least, if we pretend that no one goes to Hell, then why do priests labor so hard? Why even have priests at all? If everyone goes to Heaven, then the priest has no supernatural work to do. In worldly affairs, he may serve a counseling role of some kind, but anyone can do that. The supernatural order defines the priest’s role. Cancelling Hell distorts this order, for, as recent decades have taught, it is a short step from “let’s only talk about Heaven” to “we’ll make Heaven a place on earth.” What intelligent man would want to sacrifice his life to serve materialistic ends?

Only by rebalancing our supernatural view – that sin does real damage, that Hell is real, that sacraments convey real grace, and that we need God’s grace to get to Heaven – will we see an increase in priestly vocations after decades of decline. Men, by nature, are attracted to the hero’s part, and they are willing to make sacrifices to get there. This is why superheroes have proven so popular: they speak to a primordial longing in the male heart to be a savior.

In order to bloom, this innate desire has to be cultivated from without. Men need to see other men making sacrifices, and they need these heroes to invite them personally to join them. They need material and moral support from the communities they serve as reminders that what they do is valued. And they need to know that the dangers that they have offered to fight are still threats.

The same goes for potential priest-heroes. They need to see ordained priests energetically working to save souls from Hell and for Heaven. They need these priests to invite them to pursue a priestly vocation. They need moral and material support from their families, friends, bishops, and seminary directors. And they need to know that every sacrament they confer has eternal significance for the souls in their care, since, without the sacraments, their fellow Catholics are more susceptible to follow Satan’s empty promises to eternal punishment.

In other words, the priest is a hero because what he does every day is a matter of life or death – eternal life or eternal death. (Read more.)

More HERE.