The Kingdom of Canada

In honor of Dominion Day, just passed, The Monarchist is linked to an insightful article by David Warren about our neighbor to the north.


“Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try. No hell below us, above us only sky. Imagine all the people, living for today. Imagine there's no countries: it isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for; and no religion, too. Imagine all the people, living life in peace.”

This is the postmodern dream, of perfect vacuity -- of the serenity we imagine will sweep over us like sleep. All we need do is abandon everything of value in our heritage, everything for which so many of our ancestors actually fought and died. In this great zero, everyone will be equal, and no person will be better than another. The heroine and the harlot will be one and the same, great saints and great monsters indistinguishable. “Judgementalism” -- the aversion that one individual has behaved better than another -- is, among the vacuous today, the only crime remaining to be punished. And likewise, under the doctrine of “multiculturalism,” there is nothing to choose between one culture and another. They are all just fine, and so far as any particularity can still be distinguished, “everything is beautiful in its own way.”

In a sad, sad way, this is a parody of Christianity: “Judge not, lest thee be judged.” Share

She Walks In Beauty

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

By Lord Byron

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Happiness in Marriage

The recent Washington Post article. (Thanks, Elisa.)

Children rank as the highest source of personal fulfillment for their parents but have dropped to one of the least-cited factors in a successful marriage, according to a national survey to be released today.

In a study that shows how separately marriage and children are viewed, Americans expressed great passion for their sons and daughters but clearly did not see them as the glue of their adult relationships.

This does not sound good, at first, but it actually may well be a healthy trend in the long run. Children are gifts from God. They are not supposed to be sources of our personal happiness, although great happiness may be a by-product. Marriage is made for children, but a marriage can be beautiful and fulfilling even if God does not bless it with children. Christian married love is holy in itself, as long as the spouses are open to life, because it reflects the love of Christ for His Church. Share

Female Altar Servers

The Church officially banned them a long time ago, according to yet another thought-provoking post from Hallowed Ground. Why we continue to see little girls assisting at the altar is beyond me. One does not have to be a theologian to see the practice as the jarring anomaly that it is. Since those with authority are not effectively exercising it in this regard, then it is really up to the parents. If parents would not encourage their daughters to be altar servers, but explain to them the holiness and beauty of the various vocations in the Church and how men and women have different ways of serving, then it would put a stop to the confusion.

As another article says:


Traditionally, the role of altar server has always been reserved to males and rightfully so. By having males serve at the altar, a young man is better able to discern the priesthood since he is involved with the Liturgy. Personally, I support the return of an all-male group of altar servers for the entire Catholic Church. Some parishes are even returning to the practice of all-male altar servers. Historically, the role of altar server has always been reserved to males. In the Encyclical Allatae Sunt on July, 26, 1755, Pope Benedict XIV stated in paragraph 29:

Pope Gelasius in his ninth letter (chap. 26) to the bishops of Lucania condemned the evil practice which had been introduced of women serving the priest at the
celebration of Mass. Since this abuse had spread to the Greeks, Innocent IV strictly forbade it in his letter to the bishop of Tusculum:"Women should not dare to serve at the altar; they should be altogether refused this ministry."We too have forbidden this practice in the same words in Our oft-repeated constitution Etsi Pastoralis, sect. 6, no. 21."

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Fascism Comes to America

Not to denigrate FDR's achievements, which were great, but his presidency introduced to America the leviathan of centralized government that we now have encroaching upon us. Here is some interesting biographical background about one of our most controversial presidents.
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Clerical Celibacy

Rorate Caeli has a beautiful post on the encyclical letter of Pope Paul VI, Sacerdotalis Cælibatus, which upheld and expounded upon the discipline of priestly celibacy in the Roman rite.
According to Pope Paul:


It is said that in the world of our time the observance of celibacy has come to be difficult or even impossible. This state of affairs is troubling consciences, perplexing some priests and young aspirants to the priesthood; it is a cause for alarm in many of the faithful and constrains Us to fulfill the promise We made to the Council Fathers. We told them that it was Our intention to give new luster and strength to priestly celibacy in the world of today.


I find the words of the Sovereign Pontiff to be especially compelling in the light of some other articles I have come across in the past few days, about a particular situation that seems to be well-known and generally accepted in the Catholic blogosphere. From the little I know, the couple in question appear to be lovely people, but the questions that arise from such scenarios have little to do with the overall "niceness" of "nice people" and everything to do with the meaning vows and commitments.

I think that just about every Catholic now knows of at least one priest who has left the active ministry to get married. We had such an episode in our own parish a few years ago. When people expressed feelings of shock and bewilderment over a seemingly very orthodox priest's defection in order to find true love (of course, it was all the bishop's fault), they were accused of gossiping and being judgmental. People should not be blamed for being shaken when they see how easy it is to dispense with certain commitments that were thought to be lifelong. Yes, the Church, being a Mother, can fix things by declaring the past to be null and void. But, especially in the light of the priest shortage, a Latin rite priest leaving the active ministry to get married should never be a cause for celebration.

I have a devout friend who has struggled for years and years in a difficult marriage and sometimes I wonder why she keeps struggling. It would be so easy to throw in the towel, get an annulment, marry someone else and still be considered a saint. At first even priests were telling her to look into an annulment, but lately they are telling her to persevere, because marriage is a vocation. It is a way of carrying the Cross with Jesus. We all know that clerical celibacy is a Cross (that is fairly obvious.) Marriage can be a form of martyrdom, too. Each Cross is a ladder to Paradise and a prelude to Easter joy. And perseverance wins the crown.

Let us all pray for each other, and for our young people, that they will not be too confused by so many annulments and clerical defections. And that lifelong commitments will continue to mean something in their eyes.
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Marie-Antoinette's love for her Husband

After the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, Louis XVI went to Paris to reconcile with his subjects. Marie-Antoinette dreaded that he would be killed. When he returned safely, a contemporary writer, Lemaire, described her reaction:

This princess, as virtuous as she was amiable, whom monsters later on accused of having never loved her husband, was absolutely in despair. As soon as she heard the King's carriage entering the Cour Royale she ran towards him holding the Dauphin in her arms, then breathless and almost fainting she fell into those of the King who was no less moved than she was. Holding out one hand to his children who covered it with kisses, with the other wiping the tears from the eyes of Marie-Antoinette and Madame Elisabeth, Louis XVI smiled again...he kept on repeating: "Happily no blood was shed, and I swear that not a drop of French blood will ever be shed on my orders."

~ Histoire de la Revolution Francaise (3 vol.) by M.H. Lemaire, 1816 Share

Loch Lomond

By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes,
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond,
Where me and my true love were ever wont to gae,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.

Oh, ye'll tak the high road, and I'll tak the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.

'Twas there that we parted in yon shady glen,
On the steep, steep side o' Ben Lomond,
Where in purple hue the Highland hills we view,
And the moon coming out in the gloamin.

O braw Charlie Stewart, dear true, true heart,
Wha could refuse thee protection,
Like the weeping birk on the wild hillside,
How gracefu he looked in dejection.

There the wild flowers spring and the wee birdies sing,
And in sunshine the waters are sleepin',
But the broken heart it kens nae second spring again,
Though the waefu may cease frae their greetin'.

Author Unknown

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The Hebrides

From the lone shieling on the misty island,
Mountains divide us and a waste of seas;
Yet still the blood is strong,
The heart is Highland,
And we, in dreams, behold the Hebrides.

Author Unknown

(Photo courtesy of Ted Kaiser)
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