Being Catholic May Mean Losing Friends

We never really understand what taking up the Cross means until it happens. We know the World will hate us but we do not often foresee the loss of friends and family. From author Heather King:

The long answer is that Catholicism is a radical search for the truth. We don’t hear nearly enough that grace costs. We don’t hear nearly enough that to follow Christ more or less means being poor. We’re not called to live in destitution but we’re clearly called to not own much more than we can use, which is really not all that much. We’re called to poverty, chastity, and obedience. And what I’ve found is that these are the most exciting, challenging, states possible! They lead to a kind of freedom and a state of being awake that is completely lacking in our narcotic culture.

There’s slacking, for example, and then there’s slacking. I myself resolutely resist being “too busy.” I think the kind of busyness that our culture aspires to and values is the work of Satan. Certain Catholic media types say we are obligated to watch mindless films and bad TV so we can meet people “where they are” and to that I say, I don’t think so. The thought of wasting even ten minutes watching some lame TV show so I can make small talk with a “non-believer” makes the hairs on my neck stand on end.

When Christ hung out with the prostitutes and the tax-payers, he wasn’t saying Let’s trade dirty jokes and gossip. He didn’t meet them at their level in that way. He met them at their level by loving them as they were and also calling them higher. You love people by seeing their terrible hunger and thirst (which means getting deeply in touch with our own), by inviting them to contribute, by showing them they have an integral, vitally important mission. By making and showing them great art and great humor, born of a path that is long, rocky, lonely and hard.

I lost my marriage in part because I converted. I quit my job as a lawyer because I converted. I’m not sure I lost friends, but I may have lost a certain closeness with certain friends. That Catholicism is constantly misinterpreted, misunderstood, maligned, scorned, despised, spat upon I can accept. What bothers me more is the view of Catholicism as mindless eccentricity. (Read more.)

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Ticket

A ticket granting entry into the chateau de Tuileries, specifically the apartments of the Queen. Share

Real Freedom is Liberation from Sin

From Voice of the Family:

We, as Catholic doctors, defending life and family, can see this is, first of all, a spiritual battle. Material poverty and consumerism are not the primary cause of the family crisis. The primary cause of the sexual and cultural revolution is ideological. Our Lady of Fatima has said that Russia’s errors would spread all over the world. It was first done under a violent form, classical Marxism, by killing tens of millions. Now it’s being done mostly by cultural Marxism. There is continuity from Lenin’s sex revolution, through Gramsci and the Frankfurt school, to the current-day gay-rights and gender ideology. Classical Marxism pretended to redesign society, through violent take-over of property. Now the revolution goes deeper; it pretends to redefine family, sex identity and human nature. This ideology calls itself progressive. But it is nothing else than the ancient serpent’s offer, for man to take control, to replace God, to arrange salvation here, in this world. It’s an error of religious nature, it’s Gnosticism. It’s the task of the shepherds to recognize it, and warn the flock against this danger. “Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.” The Church’s mission is to save souls. Evil, in this world, comes from sin. Not from income disparity or “climate change”. The solution is: Evangelization. Conversion. Not an ever increasing government control. Not a world government. These are nowadays the main agents imposing cultural Marxism to our nations, under the form of population control, reproductive health, gay rights, gender education, and so on. (Read more.)

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Street Slang of Old London

From English Historical Fiction Authors:

Often their feelings toward politics and the upper classes showed in the words they coined. Glasgow Magistrates for example was a slang term for salt herrings. One can’t help but wonder what the magistrates of that fair city did to deserve to be compared to dead fish. The slang phrase drunk as a lord was a common saying, probably referring to a rich man’s ability to afford such gratification and a sly sarcasm at the supposed habits of the upper class. And even today we can appreciate the term quockerwodger which was the proper term for a wooden toy figure, which, when pulled by a string, jerked its limbs about. In a slang sense it signified a pseudo-politician, one whose strings were pulled by someone else.

The street purveyors of slang even faced illness and death with a lively sense of humor. Someone on their last legs was a croaker and once gone they became a stiff ‘un. Their word for a stomach ache, mollygrubs or mulligrubs is particularly interesting because it also meant sorrow. They believed that the stomach was the seat of emotions, not the brain. A belief rooted no doubt in their experience of emotions and not the emerging science of the times. The term maggoty meant fanciful or fidgetty. Whims and fancies were termed maggots from the popular belief that a maggot in the brain was the cause of any odd notion a person might exhibit. (Read more.)

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Artois, 1777

The handsome young Prince of Versailles who survived the Revolution to become Charles X. Share

Jacquetta of Luxembourg

Was the mother of Queen Elizabeth Woodville really a witch? According to author Conor Byrne:

Jacquetta and Elizabeth have often been linked in the public consciousness with witchcraft and sorcery. The White Queen supports these allegations, in both the TV series and in the book, by suggesting that both women engage in witchcraft to fulfil their ambitions - thus sorcery is practised to make Edward fall in love with and marry Elizabeth; to change the outcomes of battles; to wreak vengeance on enemies. Certainly, at the time rumours of witchcraft were linked to the new queen and her family. Contemporaries found it scarcely credible that their Yorkist king had married a woman so far beneath him, who had no royal blood and was, in fact, from a Lancastrian family. Richard III, brother-in-law to Elizabeth, and the Earl of Warwick both insinuated that Jacquetta and Elizabeth had inflicted sorcery on the king, rendering his marriage invalid. Thomas Wake, a Northamptonshire esquire, claimed in 1469 that Jacquetta had brought about the marriage of Edward and Elizabeth by witchcraft, having found two lead figures, one for the king and one for the queen. Jacquetta, however, when brought to trial proved her innocence and the case against her collapsed.

As with earlier medieval women such as Joan of Navarre and Eleanor Duchess of Gloucester, witchcraft was often used to irrevocably damage the reputations of powerful women. There is no evidence to suggest that Elizabeth and Jacquetta were witches. Jacquetta's family was linked to Melusina, a water goddess or 'serpent woman'. However, there is no conclusive evidence to show that Elizabeth or Jacquetta strongly celebrated their links with such a legend, despite Philippa Gregory's claims to the contrary. While Jacquetta did own a copy of the ancestral romance Melusine, other fifteenth-century ladies did too, which hardly suggests that she was unique.

The main reason why Elizabeth was believed to be a witch was because other nobles could not believe that she, a mere gentlewoman of no social standing, was genuinely worthy of the king of England and had caused him to fall in love with her by natural means. Certainly, Edward's cousin and former supporter the earl of Warwick was furious, for he had been negotiating for Edward to marry a foreign princess, who was believed to be far worthier of Edward. Warwick personally resented and hated the Woodvilles, mainly because, by virtue of their relatives marrying almost all the other nobles, there were no suitable nobles left for his two daughters Isabel and Anne to marry. (Read more.)

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Women's Education in 17th Century England

From MyLadyWeb:

The advantages to be derived from intellectual liberty were not appreciated. Charles II., joking with the Royal Society, to whom he loved to propound insoluble problems, reflects the attitude of the aristocracy towards science and literature. By that time Shakespeare was considered a little out of date and vulgar by an age of fops and élégantes who could read Wycherley without blushing. There was a quiet cultured set, such as Evelyn and his friends. Evelyn’s daughter Mary, who died at the age of about nineteen, was a most accomplished and studious girl, and shared her father’s literary labours and enjoyments. But the seventeenth century was not favourable to the production of scholars. As the intellectual horizon widened learning became less profound. Women’s education was pursued on somewhat different lines. There was less scholarship among the best-educated women. We do not hear of ladies corresponding in Greek or translating from the Hebrew. The classics no longer held the chief place in the curriculum. Literature was multiplying in English and other living languages, and music and painting were more cultivated.

But there was little attempt, in the seventeenth century, to provide substitutes for what women had lost by the dissolution of the convent schools. For accomplishments, such as singing and dancing, wealthy families engaged special masters—generally French—and the domestic chaplain sometimes acted as tutor for the more solid parts of education. Among middle-class families, however, whose means did not allow of private tuition, the girls came off badly, there being very few schools of any sort, and very scanty supplies of literature in the home.

The seventeenth century was a great period for famous painters, and the presence of numerous excellent foreign artists in England influenced the attitude of society among the higher classes towards art. It might have been thought that, with a professed pedant like James I. following the learned Queen Elizabeth, there would have been a renewed impetus towards the profounder studies. But James I. was deficient in real strength of character, and was not an intellectual force. He might have played a very fair part among a knot of schoolmen disputing over theological points, but as a sovereign his talents did not show to good advantage. Moreover, he was in every way adverse to the progress of women. He treated them as inferiors, with a ponderous levity, and nothing was further from his mind than giving any encouragement to the cultivation of learning among the ladies of the court. Under Charles I. culture would have had a fair chance in England had not political trouble intervened, and during the remainder of the century society underwent a series of changes inimical to learning. (Read more.)

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Portraits

Portraits of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette by Jean-Joseph Bernard, 18th century. Share

Canonization of a Married Couple

From France24:

Pope Francis is reportedly particularly devoted to the 19th century French Carmelite nun, fondly known as "The Little Flower", who died at the age of 24 in 1897 and was later declared a doctor of the church.

Pope Francis has said that he carries a copy of one of the saint’s books in his black travelling bag and turns to her for help and guidance.

The Martins were canonised on Sunday as the final week of the pope's bishops meeting on families was to begin. One of the aims of the bishops' synod is to provide Catholic families with role models, emphasising those who took care to educate their children in the Catholic faith.

In March of this year the pope recognised a miracle attributed to the Martins. A Spanish baby born prematurely in 2008 was fighting for her life when her deeply religious family began praying to the parents of Saint Thérèse. Baby Carmen eventually recovered and was released from hospital on January 2, 2009, which is Saint Thérèse's birthday.

The Vatican recognised another miracle when similar prayers from the family of a sick Italian child named Pietro Schiliro were allegedly answered when he made a full recovery.

Both Pietro,12, and Carmen, now 7, were present at the canonisation ceremony.

Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, has described the Martin couple as “an extraordinary witness of conjugal and family spirituality”.

Known for living an exemplary life of prayer, fasting and charity, the Martins frequently visited the elderly and invited poor people to dine with them in their home.

Louis Martin and Zélie Guerin married in 1858, just three months after they met. They lived in celibacy for nearly a year but went on to have nine children, only five of whom survived. All five became nuns, including the youngest, Thérèse, at the age of 15. (Read more.)

 
From The National Catholic Register:

Before her death in 1897, in her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, wrote, “God gave me a father and mother more worthy of heaven than of earth.” Her prophetic words will be fully realized this week, when her parents, Louis and Zélie Martin, are canonized on Oct. 18.

Another sign of God’s extraordinary grace at work within an ordinary family is that the cause for the canonization of St. Thérèse’s sister, Leonie Martin, has now begun.

For 30 years, Maureen O’Riordan, a resident of Philadelphia, has studied and prayed over their writings, speaking at conferences and retreats, as she follows what she describes as her mission of making the Martin family better known; she has three websites dedicated to the Martin family (LouisandZelieMartin.org; ThereseofLisieux.org; LeonieMartin.org).

“The essence of their spirituality,” she said, “is that they accepted their own powerlessness, that God might be all-powerful in their lives.”

The Martins were married in Alencon, France, in 1858. From the beginning, their daily lives were filled with responsibilities as parents, spouses, caregivers, business owners, landlords and employers. They celebrated the births of their nine children, but suffered as they faced the loss of four of them — three in infancy and 5-year-old Helene during the Franco-Prussian War.

During those terrifying months, the Martins were forced to quarter nine German soldiers in a basement area of their home. One afternoon, while sitting and rocking Helene upstairs, Zélie watched her mildly-ill little one look up, whisper that she would soon be well — and then close her eyes and die. Shocked, Zélie later described the moment in a letter, saying, “I didn’t expect such a sudden end, nor did my husband. When he came home and saw his poor little daughter dead, he began to sob, crying, ‘My little Helene! My little Helene!’ Then, together, we offered her to God.”

Inspired by their faith, Carmelite Father James Geoghegan said that experiencing challenges such as the death of children, breast cancer (Zélie), mental illness (Louis) and elderly care make the Martins “very relatable.”

Zélie worried, he said, and Louis tried to reassure her. Once, while away on business, he wrote, pleading, “Look, I’ve been telling you to take it easy. ... We’ll work hard, but God will take care of the rest.” (Read more.)

The Holy Father's Homily.

Here is a report on a miracle which occurred through the Martins' intercession.

Fr. Hunwicke discusses the canonization Mass. Share