Thursday, January 14, 2010

Lepanto



Inspired by Snarky Basterd, I thought I'd better post this, from the Battle of Lepanto by G.K. Chesterton.

But a noise is in the mountains, in the mountains, and I know
The voice that shook our palaces--four hundred years ago:
It is he that saith not 'Kismet'; it is he that knows not Fate;
It is Richard, it is Raymond, it is Godfrey at the gate!
It is he whose loss is laughter when he counts the wager worth,
Put down your feet upon him, that our peace be on the earth."
For he heard drums groaning and he heard guns jar,
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.)
Sudden and still--hurrah!
Bolt from Iberia!
Don John of Austria
Is gone by Alcalar.

Stirring stuff - Lepanto. Then again, I'm for the Faith, along with GKC. But more of that on the Feast of Our Lady of Victories (Oct. 7).

God bless,

LSP

8 comments:

Borepatch said...

Not often you hear about this turning point in history. My hat's off to you, sir!

LSP said...

Thanks Borepatch - Lepanto is huge. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Vatican return the Moslem (Ali Pasha's) war standard to Turkey in the '60s? Big mistake.

JPT said...

Beautiful painting.

LSP said...

It's a good JPT - thanks for dropping by.

Anonymous said...

Great post, Parson.

It seems so subversive, celebrating past victories of Christendom.

Where are the unapologetic Chestertons and Bellocs of today?

Ironic that today's greatest defender of The West is Christopher Hitchens, an atheist. I'm a big fan, btw.

LSP said...

You're totally right about subversive, Silverfiddle, and where are the Chester/Bellocs? We certainly need good apologists... there's people like Kreeft - but its not the same.

Hitchens writes really well - too bad about the God thing.

Anonymous said...

Hitchens may well be the Chesterton of today. Where Chesterton defended the faith, Hitchens defends our freedoms as enshrined in the constitution.

If the Constitution stands, so do our freedoms, including the freedom of religion.

Anyway, Christopher Hitchens is my favorite lefty atheist. Have you read his book about Orwell? No other contemporary author is as qualified to writ it as him. It's a great read.

LSP said...

Haven't read the Orwell book, but I will. Thanks Silverfiddle!

God bless.