In a drab, rather godless world

THE CROWN IS THE ANSWER TO A NEED
By Robert Sencourt
TN the disintegration of tradition. economics, social order and religion which came with and followed the war, Great Britain has suffered perhaps as much as any country not under Moscow's control. In no other flee country has socialism, and therefore taxation, gone quite so far : in no country has ancient privilege been so suddenly and sharply curtailed: and there are few countries where Church worship attracts fewer people. But, in spite of everything, this country has kept the outward forms of its constitution, and in the general drift towards a featureless uniformity of rather godless living, it has made one outstanding exception in the Sovereign and the Royal Family.
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This was already to be noted two or three years ago when the Sovereign was an ailing man of middle age. But now, with the accession of a young lady of the most pleasing appearance and personality, of high intelligence, and yet higher character, married to the best type of naval officer (who is also a handsome, able and energetic Prince) to become mother of a fine boy and girl of age as tender as their health is robust, there has been a universal surge of passionate interest and enthusiasm towards the Crown.
It has supplied the masses of the people with what they crave—someone to represent an ideal and to kindle loyalty : someone to reverence and to love. The result is that the Crown is now playing a more constant and impressive part than ever before in the lives of the peoples of Her Majesty's far-ranging dominions. All are unified, ennobled, inspired in their devotion to the gracious, winning young creature who, by Divine providence, is enthroned in Majesty above them, and who represents the dignity, the state, the power of unified and just government in her vast territories, where the coloured races, even after the partial separation of India and Pakistan. outnumber the white, but which find their centre in this ancient realm of England and their central metropolis in its capital. To London and especially to Buckingham Palace and to Westminster Abbey millions of hearts will turn on June 2 in a great act of homage, as they think of the unique ceremony with which the young and lovely Queen is consecrated to her sovereign function. Twelve thousand miles away, in the winter sunshine of New Zealand, two million hearts will be raised in the unsurpassed eagerness of her most distant yet most loyal dominion among the tree-ferns and the cabbage-trees, which grow between sudden mountain and azure sea. Extending north-east and north-west from there to London to embrace the globe, there will be everywhere an impulse at once of festival and solemnity in which the masses of the people will joyfully and thankfully unite in the acclaim with which London will roar the allegiance of those who can approach the procession and ceremony in which the Queen, her Consort and her Retinue pass from Palace to Abbey, linger, and return, in a pageant of colour and a reverberation of thrilling sound—all summed up in four familiar words of fealty and prayer: God Save the Queen.
Not Worldly Glory
IT is realised now that this is no spectacle of mere worldly glory, though no other sovereign reigns over regions so wide, so varied and so fertile. It is a celebration of a religious ceremony, reaching back with but little break or change in form or meaning to the time when St. Augustine brought from Rome the Benedictine liturgy of Gregory the Great and moulded English prayer and the education of her boys to forms which, in spite of schisms, have been by no means all abandoned.
Just as the Anglican marriage service repeats the old words of the Catholic sacramental vow, so the Coronation keeps with very little change the old sacramental forms of anointing which gave to king as to priest a special hallowing. For it is the Queen's anointing which is the centre of her Coronation service: the Hebrew word Messiah and the Greek Christ both mean Anointed. When the Queen is anointed it is a symbol that she is made partaker of certain high prerogatives of the throne and majesty of Christ Our Lord and King who indues her with a special grace of state a special gift of the Holy Spirit to perform her part as Queen. We can all join in the prayers ol that Holy Unction which she is to receive, as her Catholic ancestors received it for close on 1,000 years: "0 Lord, Holy Father who by anointing with oil did of old make and consecrate Kings, priests and prophet.c to teach and govern Thy people Israel, bless and sanctify thy chosen servant Elizabeth who is now to he anointed with this oil and consecrated Queen of this realm. Strengthen her, 0 Lord, with the Holy Ghost the Comforter: confirm and establish her with Thy free and princely Spirit—the Spirit of wisdom and government, the Spirit of counsel and ghostly strength, the Spirit of knowledge and true godliness and fill her, 0 Lord, with the Spirit of Thy holy fear, now and for evermore."
When these seven gifts of the Holy Ghost have been invoked—with remembrance of the Christ's promise that the Holy Spirit will be given to them that ask it—the choir sings from the Book of Kings the two Verses
"Zadok the priest took a horn of oil out of the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpets and all the people said God save King Solomon.
"And all the people came up after him and the people piped with pipes and rejoiced with great joy so that the earth rent with the sound of them."
Exaltation
T HESE words which sum up so I much of the people's exaltation at the Coronation today go back in steady succession to the day when Solomon, the Son of David was chosen as an antetype of Christ the King.
And when Her Majesty, after receiving the Unction on the ancient Coronation chair, kneels down, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who even as an Anglican (and we know that he is a very Protestant °lie to boot) still holds in legal continuity, and therefore name, the throne of the leader of the Benedictine missionaries from Rome, will then repeat over his sovereign Lady this ancient form of Catholic blessing:
"Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who by His Father was anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows, by His holy anointing pour down upon your head and heart the blessing of the Holy Ghost and prosper the work of your hands that by the assistance of His heavenly grace you may preserve the people committed to your charge in wealth, peace and godliness and after a long and glorious course of ruling this temporal kingdom wisely, justly and religiously you may at last he made partakers of an eternal kingdom, through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord."
Such is the central act of the Coronation service, and only after it has been completed and the Queen has robed again and received the orb and sceptre, does the Archbishop take St. Edward's crown and place it Upon her head. Then the peers and peeresses all don their coronets and the signal is given for the salute.
The Anglican Eucharist follows, still in its way carrying on the tradition in which the Catholic sovereigns completed their hallowing by their surrender to Christ in Holy Communion.
We Join
IN the true significance of this act of dedication and consecration few will join with more express and ardent devotion than Her Majesty's Catholic subjects. We will unite with those outside our own unity in invoking blessings on the Queen. and in joining our lives with hers in an act of worship to consecrate to God our bounden duty and service not only to her whom he has set above us, but also to one another, in lives of consideration, justice and concord.
And in so doing we know that this unity does not stop with the Cornmonwealth and Empire of Britain. For the Coronation of the Queen of England is an act which kindles the sympathy and the respect—yes, and the enthusiasm—of all who gather an inkling of its significance and who delight in admiring a nation's life glorified and ennobled by the fervour and magnificence which raises itself above common things for a signal occasion of honour and blessing.
For it is with the Crown as it is with the Papal Tiara. When we honour the Pope in his Coronation, we gain for ourselves a richer participation in the majesty and peace of the Church: When we honour the Queen in hers, we lift up our hearts to share in the blessing she receives as the centre of the peace and unity which make her wide domains an example to a troubled world as her throne is a bounty to its need of splendour.