Yesterday, at Mass in Warrenton, Virginia, the priest recited a quote by the Anglo-French writer Hilaire Belloc which I had posted in February. Prior to the recitation, the priest urged the young people in the congregation to bring their Faith with them as they proceeded in life, to live their Faith, and to be unabashedly Catholic. I thought I would re-post the Belloc quote today.
In 1906, Belloc was running for political office, and there had been murmurings lamenting the fact that he was Catholic; in that context he spoke the following:
“Gentlemen, I am a Catholic. As far as possible, I go to Mass every day. This [taking a rosary out of his pocket] is a rosary. As far as possible, I kneel down and tell these beads every day. If you reject me on account of my religion, I shall thank God that He has spared me the indignity of being your representative.”
Hilaire Belloc (b. 1870- d. 1953), excerpt from a 1906 speech he gave to voters in South Salford, excerpt from The Life of Hilaire Belloc
It is a testament to the power of a public profession of Faith that such a profession was repeated, and noted, over one hundred years later by a priest at Mass, an ocean away from the original spoken word.
Greetings to all of you on this Monday in the month of Our Lady!
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Picture: Hilaire Belloc, 1915
