photo credit: Newsweek.com Today the Roman Calendar commemorates St. Peter Claver, the Spanish Jesuit who took the title escalvo de los escalvos as the servant of the 10,000 African slaves that would arrive every month at the Port of Cartegena (now in Columbia, South America). He and his little band of brothers met the slave ships coming in with food, medicines, and, best of all, the love of Jesus Christ. During his forty years of service to these men, Peter Claver ministered to well over 500,000 slaves, making him by far the great “patron saint of slaves.” Let us pray to him for those 25 million estimated to be in some form of slavery today, especially those in sexual slavery in countries frequented by wealthy Europeans and Americans. God save us!
Today we remember another servant of servants, Queen Elizabeth II. The wise and courageous Englishman, Dr. Carl Trueman, wrote a fine article that you can read at this link: https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2022/09/the-quiet-faith-of-queen-elizabeth-ii
Dr. Trueman points out that Queen Elizabeth’s service to England and its commonwealth countries began under Churchill and continued for 70 years during 14 more Prime Ministers. England and the world’s culture changed in many unsettling ways during those seven decades, but Queen Elizabeth remained steady in restrained humility, placing duty and the needs of her people above her personal interests. She maintained the best of English culture during these decades of decline, and did so by adhering to her Christian faith without blinking in the face of mocking secularism. “Her reign,” writes Dr. Trueman, “was marked with a deep sense of the dignity of her office. She never used profane language. She never sneered at critics. A generation raised on reality TV, life-as-performance, confected Twitter outrage, and “living loud” would do well to reflect upon that.”
Above all, I think, Queen Elizabeth believed in God more than herself. She reigned as a Christian monarch, and as such as a servant to the servants of God. For in God’s kingdom, to serve is to reign, and to reign is to serve. May she rest in peace.
Today we remember another servant of servants, Queen Elizabeth II. The wise and courageous Englishman, Dr. Carl Trueman, wrote a fine article that you can read at this link: https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2022/09/the-quiet-faith-of-queen-elizabeth-ii
Dr. Trueman points out that Queen Elizabeth’s service to England and its commonwealth countries began under Churchill and continued for 70 years during 14 more Prime Ministers. England and the world’s culture changed in many unsettling ways during those seven decades, but Queen Elizabeth remained steady in restrained humility, placing duty and the needs of her people above her personal interests. She maintained the best of English culture during these decades of decline, and did so by adhering to her Christian faith without blinking in the face of mocking secularism. “Her reign,” writes Dr. Trueman, “was marked with a deep sense of the dignity of her office. She never used profane language. She never sneered at critics. A generation raised on reality TV, life-as-performance, confected Twitter outrage, and “living loud” would do well to reflect upon that.”
Above all, I think, Queen Elizabeth believed in God more than herself. She reigned as a Christian monarch, and as such as a servant to the servants of God. For in God’s kingdom, to serve is to reign, and to reign is to serve. May she rest in peace.
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