Tea at Trianon: Learning to Advent

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

Sunday, December 8, 2024

Learning to Advent

From Under the Peach Tree:

The eve of Advent comes with the reading from Isaiah that reminds us of the child to be born to us, the Prince of Peace, who would go on to remind us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” That is all that matters.
The Advent promise is one of hope and faith, that God will provide, and he will fill in the gaps, and He will show us the way. I am clearly a slow learner, but it seems that this Advent, God is reminding me of this truth. It is simple to say, and so hard for me to do in practice.
The Pieper passage that opens this message has long been a favorite, but I focused on the first part more than the final line on seeing the world as a whole. My world at present means including and embracing the reality that this treatment is exhausting and time-consuming even as it is healing. While I can see progress, the end is not yet reached, and I must remember to seek the Wisdom more often that shows me what I can and cannot do, where those boundaries must be drawn, and where I must say, “I can’t.” (Read more.)