From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Head and Members Pray   
      
      "God could give no greater gift to us than to make his Word,   
   through Whom he created all things, our Head and to join us to him as   
   his members   
      Thus, when we speak to God in prayer we do not separate the Son   
   from him, and when the body of the Son prays it does not separate its   
   Head from itself."   
   --St. Augustine--Commentary on Psalm 85, 1   
      
   Prayer: May he perfect his gifts in us, since he did not hesitate to   
   take our faults on himself. And may he make us children of God, since   
   he chose to become the child of human beings for us.   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon 184, 3   
      
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   May 30th - St. Joan of Arc   
    (1412-1431)   
      
   Who today does not know the history of the Maid of Orleans, who saved   
   France from the foreign domination of the English, only to be betrayed   
   by the legitimate prince whom her efforts had crowned at Rheims, then   
   burnt at the stake on May 30, 1431? Both in the French and English   
   languages, many books and articles have honored her since her   
   canonization in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.   
      
   The French Revolution created “Marianne”, a mythical young beauty, as   
   the symbol of France. A nobler symbol of France is Joan of Arc, who   
   was not only a real-life patriot but a saint.“Jeanne la Pucelle”, as   
   the French used to call her, was the daughter of Jacques d’Arc, a   
   peasant farmer of Dornremy, in northeast France. Although she never   
   learned to read and write, Joan was well-instructed by her mother in   
   household skills. As a child, she was hearty, happy and helpful. She   
   became a holy young woman too “. . . so good,” those who knew her   
   testified, “that all the village loved her.”   
      
   Joan, lived, however, in troubled times. Henry V of England had   
   invaded France to add it to his kingdom. The dukes of Burgundy,   
   enemies of the French king, sided with Henry. Although Henry of   
   England and the mad Charles VI of France died the same year, the war   
   continued. Charles VII was heir to the French crown, but stuck in the   
   mud of despair, he practically gave up the fight.   
      
   When she was 14, Joan began to have apparitions and to hear voices   
   that advised her. Eventually the voices identified themselves as those   
   of St. Michael, St. Catherine, St. Margaret. These “instructors”   
   gradually informed the teenager that she was called by God to a   
   special mission.   
      
   In 1422, the voices came to the point. They commanded her to go to the   
   French king and tell him that she was sent by God to lead his armies   
   to victory! When he showed amazement at the command, the saints   
   assured her that since God had picked her for the job, he would see   
   her through.   
      
   After many initial difficulties, Joan was able to persuade the   
   general, Baudricourt, to take her to the king. Forewarned, Charles had   
   disguised himself to test her; but the Maid, assisted by her voices,   
   picked him out at once in the crowded chamber. Startled, the king   
   asked his council to interview Joan. The councillors were very   
   favorably impressed and recommended that Charles give her military   
   authority. So Joan, clad in white armor, rode off at the head of the   
   regiment to rescue the city of Orleans, which lay under enemy siege.   
      
   Although wounded in the affray, Joan succeeded in raising the long   
   siege of Orleans in just a few days. Then she moved on to Patay, where   
   her troops achieved another victory. On the strength of these   
   victories, Charles went to Rheims, where he was crowned king on July   
   17, 1429. Joan stood beside him at the ceremony, bearing her special   
   religious banner.   
      
   The coronation over, La Pucelle returned to the battlefield. But on   
   May 23, after leading an unsuccessful sortie out of Compiegne, she was   
   accidentally locked out of the city, and fell into the hands of the   
   Burgundians. The vengeful Duke of Burgundy kept her captive several   
   months. Then he sold her to the English for a huge price. The   
   ungrateful Charles did nothing to rescue her.   
      
   The English leaders sought Joan’s death. They could not condemn her on   
   the basis other victories, but they hit upon another approach, which   
   would also, they thought, discredit her.   
      
   Pierre Cauchon, the pro-English bishop of Beauvais, brought her before   
   a church court on the charge of witchcraft and heresy. After a rigged   
   process, the court condemned her as a relapsed heretic, and Joan, at   
   the age of 19, was burned to death at Rouen on May 30, 1431. She died   
   with great courage, invoking the Holy Name. Her ashes were thrown into   
   the Seine River to prevent their veneration.   
      
   At length, however, the English forces were driven from France. In   
   1454, at the insistence of Joan’s family, Pope Callistus III ordered a   
   retrial. Enough of the witnesses of Joan’s military career and her   
   trial were still alive. Their testimony in favor of her orthodoxy and   
   holiness was absolutely convincing. The pope therefore cancelled the   
   sentence of the earlier court. Almost 500 years later, in 1920, Pope   
   Benedict XV canonized the Maid as a saint. One might say she, too, had   
   risen from the dead.   
      
   Many groups tried to lay claim to St. Joan as their own. But, though a   
   patriot, she was not a nationalist; though a soldier, she never used   
   her sword to wound; though the victim of a rigged church trial, she   
   was completely devoted to the Church; though a female leader, she was   
   not a feminist.   
      
   No, St. Joan of Arc was simply a devout, highly intelligent, and   
   utterly common-sense young woman who accepted a divine assignment   
   comparable only to those given to the Old Testament heroines, Judith   
   and Esther. In Joan, St. Paul would say, But the foolish things of the   
   world hath God chosen, that he may confound the wise: and the weak   
   things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the strong.   
   (1 Cor. 1:27).   
   –Father Robert   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Forgive me, but I think there is no labour greater than that of prayer   
   to God. For every time a man wants to pray, his enemies, the demons,   
   want to prevent him, for they know that it is only by turning him from   
   prayer that they can hinder his journey. Whatever good work a man   
   undertakes, if he perseveres in it, he will attain rest. But prayer is   
   warfare to the last breath.   
   --St. Agathon   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "My dear friends, do not be taken aback at the testing by fire which   
   is taking place among you, as though something strange were happening   
   to you; but in so far as you share in the sufferings of Christ, be   
   glad, so that you may enjoy a much greater gladness when his glory is   
   revealed.  If you are insulted for bearing Christ's name, blessed are   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)