Jean-Baptiste

Ut queant laxis
Resonare fibris
Mira gestorum
Famuli tuorum,
Solve polluti
Labii reatum, Sanc
Te Ioannes

St. John the Baptist is also the patron saint of Québec and of all of French America. Donc, à tous mes cousins, bonne fête!


400 years ago on this day was baptised Chief Henri Membertou, the first baptism of an aboriginal in Canada, and likely in the New World north of Mexico.

130 years ago was first sang this song, commissioned by the Lieutenant Governor of Québec for the celebration of the feast of Jean-Baptiste (the English version came later):



Vive le Québec.
Vive l'Amérique française.

Royal Wedding in Sweden

Et Lux in Tenebris Lucet is proud to offer the most heartfelt congratulations to TRH Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden and Daniel, Duke of Västergötland on the occasion of their wedding yesterday.

Video of the ceremony may be viewed here. (Thanks to Elena Maria Vidal at Tea at Trianon for the link.)

On a more personal note, HM Carl XVI Gustaf is the royal to whom I have been the nearest in my life, and by pure coincidence. In Québec City in autumn 2006, while exploring the Old City, a motorcade passed down the street along which I was walking. Noting the Swedish flags, I initially thought it was the prime minister or foreign minister on a diplomatic visit. However, coming across a newspaper in a pub soon thereafter, I soon realized that I had just been passed by the King of Sweden.

In addition to my closest royal encounter, Sweden has also given me my car (a lovely black Saab named Ingrid), my favourite film director (Ingmar Bergman), and perhaps, by way of Normandy, my blue eyes.

Lange leve Sverige.



I add as a footnote that an unfortunate power outage has destroyed most of my new essays that I had been hoping to start publishing yesterday. Please bear with me as I attempt to reconstruct them this week.

Sacré-Cœur de Jésus

To the Sacred Heart of Jesus I give myself and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, my person and my life, my actions, pains and sufferings, so that I may be unwilling to make use of any part of my being other than to honor, love and glorify the Sacred Heart. This is my unchanging purpose, namely, to be all His, and to do all things for the love of Him, at the same time renouncing with all my heart whatever is displeasing to Him. I therefore take You, O Sacred Heart, to be the only object of my love, the guardian of my life, my assurance of salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy, the atonement for all the faults of my life and my sure refuge at the hour of death.

Be then, O Heart of goodness, my justification before God the Father, and turn away from me the strokes of his righteous anger. O Heart of love, I put all my confidence in You, for I fear everything from my own wickedness and frailty, but I hope for all things from Your goodness and bounty.

Remove from me all that can displease You or resist Your holy will; let your pure love imprint Your image so deeply upon my heart, that I shall never be able to forget You or to be separated from You.

May I obtain from all Your loving kindness the grace of having my name written in Your Heart, for in You I desire to place all my happiness and glory, living and dying in bondage to You.

Amen.

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

I'm back from my holiday, but new information I've found is forcing me to rewrite the essays I prepared while away. If tomorrow is a pleasant day, I'll be sure to hammer them out in front of my local café. In the meantime, to commemorate Robert Schumann's bicentennial, albeit belated, please enjoy one of the few pieces in this world that I wish I could hear again for the first time, the Träumerei, courtesy of the great Vladimir Horowitz.

My, does this ever bring back the memories.

Off to the coast

Just when I thought that I'd be returning to blogging more often, readers, I have received an invitation to Narragansett from an old friend that I truly can't pass up. Worry not though; I shall be returning next week to continue my series on fanaticism, and to post whatever I may come to write by the sea this weekend.