Conspiracies

Here is an article from Lew Rockwell.com about conspiracy theories and anti-semitism. Share

"Let Us Eat Lies"

Here is a fascinating article by Dr. Gabriel Garnica about how the lies and distortion concerning the truth about Queen Marie-Antoinette are typical of modern and revolutionary political agendas. Share

Spotlight reviews of the Coppola film

I have not yet seen Marie-Antoinette (2006), the film by Sofia Coppola. It never came to State College. I will definitely watch the DVD and then write my own review. In the meantime, here are some reviews that I found interesting.

Here is a monarchist's review. I do not agree that Marie-Antoinette would necessarily have liked the same music that Ms. Coppola enjoys, had they been contemporaries. Theodore does offer some great insights, though, as usual.
http://www.angelfire.com/in3/theodore/opinion/marieantoinette.html

It seems the film did not do well in Canada.
http://www.lavantage.qc.ca/?nav=article&id=1144416505

A socialist's review. Considering that the film embraces the Marxist interpretation of class conflict being the cause of Revolution, the working class is totally ingnored.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/nov2006/mari-n24.shtml

A Roman Catholic review.
http://traditioninaction.org/movies/008mrAntoinette.htm
According to Madame Campan, Marie-Antoinette did go to Confession and receive Communion secretly from a non-juring priest while still at the Tuileries. Biographer Andre Castelot mentions how she also was able to confess and receive Viaticum from a priest faithful to the Holy See while at the Conciergerie awaiting her trial and death. She did not mention it in her letter to Elisabeth because she dreaded betraying the priest, and the guards who had made it possible for her to receive spiritual succor. This is still not evidence that Marie-Antoinette had an affair with Fersen (there is no indication of any affair, as the above review says), only that she was a faithful Catholic who relied upon the Sacraments of the Church.

I will add some more reviews later and if anyone has a review they would like to share, please let me know.

How could I have forgotten this one?
http://www.lemague.net/dyn/article.php3?id_article=2145 Share

Birthday of La Pucelle

The Epiphany is the birthday of Saint Joan of Arc, who called herself La Pucelle, "The Maid." Here is a link to some of her most famous quotations, in addition to those included below.

"Je me attens a Dieu, mon createur, de tout; je layme (l'ayme) de tout mon cuer."
"I place trust in God, my creator, in all things; I love Him with all my heart."

"Je suis cy envoiée de par Dieu, le roy du ciel."
"I am sent here by God, the King of Heaven".

"Je me attens a mon juge, cest (c'est) le roy du ciel et de la terre."
"I trust in my Judge, who is the King of Heaven and Earth".

Here is another excellent site as well. Share

The Twelfth Night - Epiphany Eve

It is the Twelfth Night. Tomorrow in Rome the Holy Father will be celebrating the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord. In the U.S.A. we will be celebrating the great manifestation of Our Lord to the nations on Sunday. In the meantime, Fish Eaters has a splendid article about Epiphany Eve. Share

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton and the mountain of grace

The place of my retreat is about ten miles from the tomb of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born citizen to be canonized. Today is her feast-day. She was a beautiful, cultured, educated lady who suffered the loss of husband, two children, and social standing. Shunned by most of her family after she converted to Catholicism, Saint Elizabeth started a community of teaching nuns in what was called Saint Joseph's valley at the foot of Saint Mary's mountain near Emmitsburg, Maryland. I often came to Emmitsburg during my childhood and young adulthood and was happy to go to Mass today on the mountain at the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. It is the spot where my husband and I became engaged on Easter Sunday in 1996. We also visited it after our wedding in November of the same year and left my bouquet at Our Lady's feet.

The grotto is a popular pilgrimage site and has a miraculous spring. My mother once injured her foot after she dropped a motor bike on it and we took her to the grotto. After bathing her foot in the icy water the pain disappeared, even as she was walking back to the car. There are many other healings that have happened there, both physical and spiritual. The Mass today was in the glass chapel on the side of the mountain. I could see through the tall trees the blue expanse of Frederick County, "fair as the garden of the Lord," as the poet Whittier said. (Well, at least it used to be; now it is a bit congested.) There was some Latin and Father Jack offered the Mass with great reverence; Adoration followed.

At the Grotto one can see the rock where Mother Seton would come every Sunday and teach the children, those of the neighborhood and her own, the catechism, explaining the truths of the faith with clarity and love. Mother and her nuns would walk up from the valley, rain or shine, to spend Sunday on the mountain. It was in the first decades of the nineteenth century, before the Lourdes apparitions in France, but the grotto was seen as a venerable and holy place by Mother and the French emigres priests who assisted her. Walking there in the twenty-first century one is still overwhelmed by the sense of being on holy ground.

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Pray for priests

Let us begin the New Year with special prayers for all of our priests, especially those who have fallen in any way and those who are no longer in the active ministry, for whatever reason. They remain our brothers, our fathers. Let us also pray for those who may have contributed to the departure of an ordained man from his ministry. It is not for us to judge or condemn, but neither is it for us to celebrate such situations. Here is a prayer to Saint Joseph from Don Marco. Share

Hugo's poem in honor of Louis XVII, the Lost King of France

Here is a poem by the great Victor Hugo in honor of the little son of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, the dauphin Louis-Charles, called Louis XVII. After being dragged from his mother's arms at the age of eight, he was tormented in the Temple prison, his morals corrupted in order to force him to testify against the queen and his aunt Madame Elisabeth. He died at the age of ten in 1795, covered with sores, tormented by disease, mute and alone.

The golden gates were opened wide that day,

All through the unveiled heaven there seemed to play

Out of the Holiest of Holy, light;

And the elect beheld, crowd immortal,

A young soul, led up by young angels bright,

Stand in the starry portal.

A fair child fleeing from the world's fierce hate,

In his blue eye the shade of sorrow sate,

His golden hair hung all dishevelled down

On wasted cheeks that told a mournful story,

And angels twined him with the innocent's crown,

The martyr's palm of glory.

The virgin souls that to the Lamb are near,

Called through the clouds with voices heavenly clear,

"God hath prepared a glory for thy brow;

Rest in his arms, and all ye hosts that sing

His praised ever on untired string,

Chant, for a mortal comes among ye now;

Do homage,--'tis a king!"

And the pale shadow saith to God in heaven:

"I am an orphan and no king at all;

I was a weary prisoner yestereven.

My father's murderers fed my soul with gall.

Not me, O Lord! the regal name beseems.

Last night I fell asleep in dungeon drear,

But then I saw my mother in my dreams.

Say, shall I find her here?"

The angels said: "Thy Saviour bids thee come;

Out of an impure world he calls thee home,

From the mad earth, where horrid murder waves

Over the broken cross her impure wings,

And regicides go down among the graves,

Scenting the blood of kings."

He cries: "Then have I finished my long life?

Are all its evils over, all its strife,

And will no cruel jailer evermore

Wake me to pain, this blissful vision o'er?

Is it no dream that nothing else remains

Of all my torments but this answered cry,

And have I had, O God! amid my chains,

The happiness to die?

"For none can tell what cause I had to pine,

What pangs, what miseries, each day were mine;

And when I wept there was no mother near

To soothe my cries, and smile away my tear.

Poor victim of a punishment unending,

Torn like a sapling from its mother-earth,

So young, I could not tell what crime impending

had stained me from my birth.

"Yet far off in dim memory, it seems,

With all its horror mingled happy dreams;

Strange cries of glory rocked my sleeping head,

And a glad people watched beside my bed.

One day into mysterious darkness thrown,

I saw the promise of my future close;

I was a little child, left all alone,

Alas! and I had foes.

"They cast me living in a dreary tomb;

Never mine eyes saw sunlight pierce the gloom.

Only ye, brother angels, used to sweep

Down from your heaven, and visit me in sleep.

'Neath blood-red hands my young life withered there.

Dear Lord, the bad are miserable all;

Be not thou deaf, like them, unto my prayer,

-- It is for them I call."

The angels sang: "See heaven's high arch unfold!

Come, we will crown thee with the stars above,

Will give thee cherub-wings of blue and gold,

And thou shalt learn our ministry of love,

Shalt rock the cradle where some mother's tears

Are dropping o'er her restless little one,

Or, with thy luminous breath, in distant spheres,

Shalt kindle some cold sun."

Ceased the full choir, all heaven was hushed to hear;

Bowed the fair face, still wet with many a tear;

In depths of space the rolling worlds were stayed

Whilst the Eternal in the infinite said, --

"O king, I kept thee far from human state,

Who hadst a dungeon only for thy throne,

O son! rejoice and bless they bitter fate,

-- The slavery of kings thou hast not known.

What if thy wasted arms are bleeding yet,

And wounded with the fetter's cruel trace.

No earthly diadem has ever set

A stain upon thy face.

"Child, life and hope were with thee at thy birth;

But life soon bowed thy tender form to earth,

And hope forsook thee in thy hour of need.

Come, for thy Saviour had his pains divine;

Come, for his brow was crowned with thorns like thine;

His sceptre was a reed."

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Saint Genevieve, Patroness of Paris

January 3 is the feast of Saint Genevieve, Patroness of Paris. She was a virgin consecrated to God from her earliest childhood, and displayed wisdom and courage. She guided kings, fed and taught the poor, worked miracles, cast out demons and courageously withstood the Franks and Atila the Hun. She encouraged the people of Paris to pray and do penance in order to avert the plague. She died in 512 and her tomb was for centuries a sight of pilgrimage and healings for all of France. Louis XV began to build a new church in her honor in 1764 after he was healed through her intercession. During the Revolution the church was converted into a pagan temple called the Pantheon. Most of the Saint's relics were destroyed in 1791.

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