It is my belief that Our Sovereign Lady Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is the best lady in Europe (if not the world). She quickens in me a sense of piety and devotion which no liturgy, no sermon, no bishop has ever bestowed. She is certainly the last Christian symbol of British government, for which even people who despise the Royal Family (a fair number of Roman Catholics) ought to be grateful. My family come from a region of the United Kingdom where two very different figures, The Queen and the pope, are as much adored in one community as they are reviled in the other. In fact, both my parents are Jacobites (a position which doesn't make much sense to me), although they did go to Epsom Derby on Saturday. But I look to my maternal grandmother (a communicant member of the Church of Ireland), who has much cordial affection for The Queen, and know by her wisdom and example who are the real enemies of the Church - namely them that despise The Queen and the Monarchic institution. Royal Unction is as much a sacrament as the Holy Eucharist, and kingship is the only legitimate form of Christian government. It is as Tolkien said, ''δημοκρατία was not in Greek a word of approval but was nearly equivalent to 'mob rule'; and...Greek Philosophers did not approve of it,'' (Letters. no.94). (Tolkien believed in unconstitutional monarchy by the way). This is not going to be a treatise de monarchia (for which Lord knows I am not qualified), but as someone who believes in Monarchy, Aristocracy, Monasticism and the Family, which together form the foundation of a good Christian society, I thank God to have been born in England and rejoice to be a subject of The Crown. Sixty years of fidelity to God and her people! She is the only thing that stands in the way of tyranny.
I commit Her Majesty to the care of St Edward the Confessor, patron saint of the Royal Family, and invoke on Her all the temporal and spiritual blessings in The Lord. God save The Queen!
Indeed. God save The Queen! (Though I too am at least in sympathy with the Jacobites.)
ReplyDeleteI find your blog always worth reading, and while I understand your need for a break, I wanted you to know any new post from you is a very welcome event.
ReplyDeleteI agree with just about everything you said, though I too am technically a Jacobite. God save the Queen, and may the monarchy survive until Britain is restored.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this. I am myself from a staunchly monarchist English family, and I have always looked up to our Sovereign Lady. I was particularly impressed by the film that was made of her, and how she spoke of the one thing that has driven her life and vocation - duty. "England expects that every man shall do his duty", as Nelson said to his Navy.
ReplyDeleteI dread that England will go down into dystopia and fundamentalist Islam, and we will feel as our forebears did in the aftermath of World War I. France is no better, but resistance is possible here as it was against the Nazis.
Indeed, she is about all England and the pitiful remains of the Empire have left. But, we English must still pray and hope...
Very well said/written Patricius!
ReplyDeleteI was musing about writing something about an oratio imperata - which I suspect the English bishops were trying in a confused way to suggest - but then gave up on the idea.
What a splendid example our blessed Sovereign Lady, HM The Queen, is to all of us, Her loyal subjects. It never fails to amaze me to consider Her reign and compare it with both ecclesial and political history in the Realm, Europe and further afield over the last sixty years. HM The Queen shines through as a solid rock of stability amongst the shifting and failing sands of structures on far less sound a footing than the Royal House.
Whilst I have no doubt that HM will beat Queen Victoria's record for the longest reigning British Sovereign my fervent prayer is that She will beat old Louis XIV too - although if She does I expect I shall not be around to see it.
you've got a new picture paddy! what is it? mount doom?, was the old one where jesus calls two fishermen saying" Follow Me, )and they left their nets/boats and followed him!, from Ben
ReplyDeleteYes, Bryn, I have updated my 'blog (to what purpose, I don't know) and changed the image, to better reflect my present circumstances. It was painted by a Russian/Armenian artist called Ivan Aivazovsky in 1850 and is called The Ninth Wave. It depicts seamen clinging to the debris of a shipwreck after a storm on the sea. The warm sky colours symbolise hope.
ReplyDeleteThe former painting was The Road to Emmaus by 19th century Swiss artist Robert Zünd, and encapsulated the former raison d'être of this 'blog. The Latin Gospel pericope in the sidebar explained the choice of painting, in the words: ''et quomodo cognoverunt eum in fractione panis.''
I remember in my youth, watching the coronation of your present sovereign on international tv. I have always been impressied by Her Majesty and even more so by her later pronouncements of her Christian witness. Long may the Monarchy endure in its Christian sense (not the vapid Defender of Faith stuff of her son, God Forbid!
ReplyDeleteI remember in my youth, watching the coronation of your present sovereign on international tv. I have always been impressied by Her Majesty and even more so by her later pronouncements of her Christian witness. Long may the Monarchy endure in its Christian sense (not the vapid Defender of Faith stuff of her son, God Forbid!
ReplyDeleteI remember the coronation, viewing it on international TV back when I was a lad. She has reigned gloriously ever since then. I hope the monarchy survives, and not only as the 'defender of faith' as her errant son would say, but as a Christian monarchy.
ReplyDeleteGod save the Queen, and bless her! she is an example to us all.
I prefer Queen Sofia of Espana.
ReplyDeleteI prefer Queen Sofia of Espana.
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