PARIS – Day 6: La chasse and prayers and shells

Yesterday one of you readers gave me a good lead on where to find images (probably holy cards or other) of Our Lady of the Clergy in that version I posted.  Since their main store is a few minutes walk from where I a staying, I tried that as the first errand of the day. No joy.

Today to Montmartre.

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It was my intention to visit the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, built from a sense of penitence and devotion from a nation.

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They have had exposition here, continuously, since 1 August 1885.  However, not they cover the Blessed Sacrament of Mass.  Once, it would not have been so.

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The Eucharistic Lord covered during Mass.

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I spent a lot of time here, through Mass, exposition, the Benedictines singing their midday hour.  I said my own prayers, too.

Ut ómnibus benefactóribus nostris sempitérna bona retríbuas, te rogámus, audi nos.

Ut ánimas nostras, fratrum, propinquórum et benefactórum nostrórum ab ætérna damnatióne erípias, te rogámus, audi nos.

V. Orémus pro benefactóribus nostris.
R. Retribuere dignáre, Dómine, ómnibus, nobis bona faciéntibus propter nomen tuum, vitam ætérnam. Amen.

You are wonderful and it is my pleasure and duty to remember you in my prayers.

I hope you can read this writing and puzzle it out.   I found this moving and wondered, what sort of calamity would it take for a nation to do the like again?

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Lunch.  Mussels.  Crispy fries.  Sauvignon blanc.

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One of the stupidest things I’ve seen anywhere … and I don’t mean the street sign.

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Paris has distinctive water fountains, a bit more ornate than Rome’s.

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Meanwhile while walking about, I found a plaque to the original, non-fictional D’Artagnan.

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And in this place some of my country’s history took place.

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And… just because a priest wrote and suggested that I go to Laduree.

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15 Comments

  1. ChrisRawlings says:

    It looks like there were at least a few young faces at Sacre Coeur for Mass.

  2. StWinefride says:

    Fr Z – I hope you have had a chance to stroll around the Jardin de Luxembourg (not far from La Procure) – there is a Statue of Liberty down one of the “allées”!

  3. Titus says:

    I suspect it’ll take a trip into the bowels of the corporate archives to find the records on that image. Bonne chance.

  4. JabbaPapa says:

    May I suggest at least one lunch at the Polidor, on rue Monsieur le Prince, next to the Luxembourg Gardens and the Sorbonne ?

  5. pelerin says:

    Good to see the photos. Those fountains are dotted all round the city. Known as Wallace fountains they were financed by a British philanthropist named Sir Richard Wallace and I understand that they have recently installed fountains which give fizzy water!

    A must for American visitors is a visit to see the enormous statue of Benjamin Franklin near the Palais de Chaillot (Metro: Trocadero). He was much loved by the French and a few years ago they had two very impressive exhibitions on Franklin his life and work. The house in London, not far from Trafalgar Square, where he lived for a time is now a Franklin museum although he is not regarded with the same affection in England for obvious reasons!

  6. Chris Garton-Zavesky says:

    For anyone who can’t read the carving at Sacre-Coeur:

    Texte du Vœu National au Sacré-Cœur

    En présence des malheurs qui désolent La France et des malheurs plus grands peut-être qui la menacent encore.
    En présence des attentats sacrilèges commis à Rome contre les droits de l’Église et du Saint-Siège et contre la personne sacrée du Vicaire de Jésus-Christ.
    Nous nous humilions devant Dieu et, réunissant dans notre amour l’Église et notre Patrie, nous reconnaissons que nous avons été coupables et justement châtiés.
    Et pour faire amende honorable de nos pêchés et [pour] obtenir l’infinie misericorde du Sacré-Cœur de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ le pardon de nos fautes ainsi que les secours extraordinaires qui peuvent seuls délivrer le Souverain Pontife de sa captivité et [de] faire cesser les malheurs de la France nous promettons de contribuer à l’érection à Paris d’un sanctuaire dédié au Sacré-Cœur de Jésus.

  7. Peggy R says:

    On our honeymoon, my husband and I walked up a dark tower of Sacre Coeur and cross the roof to look out from another tower. I can’t deal with heights. I somehow got down to the bottom intact.

  8. skvie5738 says:

    I love Laduree!! Did you have an enjoyable time there, Father? What flavor macaron did you get?? That was such a wonderful place to have dinner and macarons when I visited Paris.

  9. pelerin says:

    And don’t forget the Picpus Cemetery where Lafayette is buried!

  10. Rachel K says:

    I was privileged (blessed) to live in. Paris for six months as a student on the European Erasmus exchange programme. That was 25 years ago (sigh, how time flies) but I could smell the Metro when I saw your photo of the underground train. I was a bit naughty, the lectures were rubbish so I went to find out all about art instead (and history and churches and other stuff). My regular place for Mass was the Madeleine- in the day I left I attended Mass there with my parents and at the end the organist played Widor’s Toccata. It was magical, heavenly! Messiaen had played the organ regularly there and on this Sunday they opened up the huge doors as the organist played us out and the sound of this glorious music and the sight of the city framed by those doors remains clearly with me.
    I can highly recommend the Musee Marmottan for superb art, including some Monets. It is a less well-known gallery housed in a spacious town house/ villa. If you get a chance to go, Fr Z, tell us hw wonderful the paintings there are!
    I also love the Oranger at the back of the Tuillerie Gardens which houses the very large Monet water lily canvases- I recall that I cried when I saw them, they are so moving- the colour is so rich and deep and they are enormous, sixty feet long and set on curved walls in the gallery.
    Also wonderful is the Musee Rodin with “Le Penseur” .
    Lovely memories, Thankyou for sharing this city (the best in the world I think! ) with us.

  11. Rachel K says:

    Oranger should say Orangerie

  12. Rachel K says:

    Have you tried the ice cream from Bertillon on Ile St Louis, opposite the back of Notre Dame?
    I think it was the best ice cream I have eaten.

  13. frsbr says:

    Years ago, I stayed at the Benedictine guest house adjacent to the shrine. Since I was a priest, they graciously assigned me to a large room, about 6′ x 12′. The best part of staying there is that they give the guests a key to the Basilica so that one might have access to Adoration throughout the night. It’s quite remarkable being alone – or nearly so – in that great church in the early hours of the morning.

  14. jhayes says:

    Yesterday one of you readers gave me a good lead on where to find images (probably holy cards or other) of Our Lady of the Clergy in that version I posted. Since their main store is a few minutes walk from where I a staying, I tried that as the first errand of the day. No joy.

    Sorry that didn’t work out. Here’s a webpage with a photo of a statue of Notre Dame du Clergé and the text of the Prière du Prêtre Souffrant of the Servant of God Fr. Eugène Prévost.

    http://prieresetdevotions.blogspot.com/search/label/Reine%20du%20Clergé

  15. Woody says:

    Thank you for posting the text of the National Vow, i could read enough of the photo to know that is what it was. If memory serves, the vow, and the popular subscription to build Sacre Coeur came as reparation for the sins of France which had resulted in the loss of the Franco-Prussian War, with the loss of Alsace and Lorraine ( my own ancestors’ region), and even more, the Paris Commune, with the murder of the Archbishop and other clergy, as the latest outbreak of the Revolution. The Augustinians of rhe Assumption were big promoters of the Vow if memory serves, as also they promoted penitential pilgrimages to the Holy Land, resulting in the construction of Notre Dame de France, now Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center, the place for a Catholic to stay in Jerusalem, as do Mundelein seminarians each year in the Winter-Spring session.

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