Tea at Trianon: New Family Routines for the Sake of Holiness

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, July 12, 2022

New Family Routines for the Sake of Holiness

From National Catholic Register:

The novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen gives an example of what family life looks like when parents do not exert the effort to have a routine of discipline. The Bennet sisters were raised following their own devices. Fortunately for them, the elder two, Elizabeth and Jane had dispositions more naturally inclined to seek order and virtue in their lives. They saw the disorder in their younger sisters and wished that their parents had done better. A passage from the novel of Elizabeth’s reflections demonstrates the disorder in the family:

In [Elizabeth’s] own past behavior, there was a constant source of vexation and regret; and in the unhappy defects of her family, a subject of yet heavier chagrin. They were hopeless of remedy. Her father, contented with laughing at them, would never exert himself to restrain the wild giddiness of his youngest daughters; and her mother, with manners so far from right herself, was entirely insensible to the evil. Elizabeth had frequently united with Jane in an endeavor to check the imprudence of Catherine and Lydia; but while they were supported by their mother’s indulgence, what chance could there be of improvement?

The unchecked behavior of Lydia leads to a near ruin of the family reputation. In any family that lacks virtue forming routine and discipline, some children will grow up more wild and others will find their way to virtue because of natural inclinations. However, Catholic parents have a duty to raise their children with a foundation and formation towards the path of holiness. We do this not just out of duty, but out of love for our children’s souls. When we discover a disorder in our upbringing of our children, it is time to implement a change. And because the Lord is always offering grace, improvement for us and our families is never hopeless. (Read more.)