Head and Members Pray

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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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30 May – St Joan of Arc

Born 6 January 1412 at Greux-Domremy, Lorraine, France--burned alive
on 30 May 1431 at Rouen, France) – Beatified 11 April 1905 by Pope
Saint Pius X, Canonised on 16 May 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.

Patron of France; martyrs; captives; military personnel; people
ridiculed for their piety; prisoners; soldiers; opposition of Church
authorities; WACs (Women’s Army Corps);WAVES (Women Appointed for
Voluntary Emergency Service). Attributes – bareheaded girl in armour
with sword, lance or banner.

The church officially remembers Joan of Arc not as a martyr but as a
virgin—the Maid of Orleans. Of course, Joan was a martyr, but not in
the technical sense. Yes, she died because she did what she thought
God wanted her to do. But she was killed for her politics, not for her
faith. Pagans did not execute her for refusing to worship their gods.
Infidels did not slay her for defying them. Political enemies burned
her at the stake for defeating them at war.

Paradoxically, Christian people, good and bad alike, cheered at her
demise. Other Christians wept. This incongruity may trouble us but
Joan would have expected it. The war she fought embroiled French
Christians against English Christians. We too have waged wars like
that, pitting Christian against Christian. Just as we may have felt
that God was on our side, Joan believed that God was with the French.
When the judges who condemned her asked if the heavenly voices she
followed to war spoke in English, she replied tartly, “Why should they
speak English when they were not on the English side?”

Joan of Arc was born into the violent times of the 15th century.
During her childhood, King Henry V of England invaded France and
seized Normandy. He laid claim to the crown of the French king,
Charles VI, who was mentally ill. Paralysed by civil war between the
duke of Burgundy and the duke of Orleans, the French could not put up
much of a defense. Things worsened when agents of the duke of Orleans
murdered the duke of Burgundy. The Burgundians reacted by becoming
England’s allies. Eventually, Burgundian mercenaries brought the war
home to Joan’s family. The raiders sacked the little village of
Domrémy-la-Pucelle, forcing them to flee. Thus, the indiscriminate
brutality of war disrupted Joan of Arc’s pleasant childhood to
acquaint her with fear.

Born of a fairly well-to-do peasant couple in Domremy-Greux southeast
of Paris, Joan was only 12 when she experienced a vision and heard
voices that she later identified as Saints Michael the Archangel,
Catherine of Alexandria, and Margaret of Antioch.

By May 1428, Joan’s voices had become relentless and specific. They
directed her to go at once to a town nearby and to offer her services
to Robert de Baudricourt, the commander of the royal forces.
Reluctantly, she obeyed. De Baudricourt, however, greeted her with
laughter, telling her that her father should give her a good spanking.

At that time, conditions were deteriorating for the French. The
English had put Orleans under siege, and the stronghold was in grave
danger. Joan’s voices became more insistent. “But I am merely a girl!
I cannot ride a horse or wield a weapon!” she protested.
“It is God who commands it!” came the reply.

Unable to resist any longer, Joan secretly made her way back to de
Baudricourt. When she arrived she told the commander a fact she could
have known only by revelation. She said the French army—on that very
day—had suffered a defeat near Orleans. Joan urged him to send her to
Orleans so that she might fulfill her mission. When official reports
confirmed Joan’s word, de Baudricourt finally took her seriously and
sent her to Charles VII.

She was outfitted with white armour and provided a special standard
bearing the names Jesus and Mary. The banner depicted two kneeling
angels offering a fleur-de-lis to God. On April 29, 1429, Joan led her
army into Orleans. Miraculously, she rallied the town. By May 8, the
French had captured the English forts and had lifted the siege. An
arrow had penetrated the armour over Joan’s breast but the injury was
not serious enough to keep her out of the battle. Everything,
including the wound, occurred exactly as Joan had prophesied before
the campaign. A peasant maiden had defeated the army of a mighty
kingdom, a humiliation that demanded revenge.

The way to Reims was now open. Joan urged the immediate coronation of
the king but the French leaders dragged their feet. Finally, however,
at Reims on July 17, 1429, Charles VII was anointed king of France.
The Maid of Orleans stood triumphantly at his side. Joan had
accomplished her mission.

During the battles at Orleans, the voices had told Joan she had only a
little time left. Her shameful end lurked ominously in the shadows.
Later, she sustained a serious arrow wound in the thigh during an
unsuccessful attack on Paris. In May 1430, after spending the winter
in court, she led a force to relieve Compiègne, which the Burgundians
had under siege. Her effort failed, and the Burgundians captured her.

Through the summer and fall, the duke of Burgundy held Joan captive.
The French, apparently ungrateful, made no effort to rescue her or
obtain her release. On November 21, 1430, the Burgundians sold Joan to
the English for a large sum. The English were quite eager to punish
the maiden who had bested them. They could not execute Joan for
winning but they could impose capital punishment for sorcery or
heresy. For several months she was chained in a cell in the castle at
Rouen, where five coarse guards constantly taunted her. In February
1431, Joan appeared before a tribunal headed by Peter Cauchon, the
avaricious and wicked bishop of Beauvais.

Joan had no chance for a fair trial. She stood alone before devious
judges, an uneducated girl conducting her own defense. The panel
interrogated her six times in public, nine times in private. They
questioned her closely about her visions, voices, male dress, faith
and submissiveness to the church. Giving good, sometimes even
unexpectedly clever answers, Joan handled herself courageously.
However, the judges took advantage of her lack of education and
tripped her up on a few slippery theological points. The panel packed
its summary with her damaging replies and condemned her with that
unfair report. They declared that demons inspired her revelations. The
tribunal decided that unless Joan recanted, she was to die as a
heretic. At first she refused. But later, when she was taken before a
huge throng, she seems to have made some sort of retraction.

Cauchon visited her, observed her dress, and determined that she had
fallen back into error. Joan, her strength renewed, then repudiated
her earlier retraction. She declared that God had truly commissioned
her and that her voices had come from him. Having condemned Joan of
Arc as a relapsed heretic, the judges remanded her to the state for
execution. The next morning she was taken into Rouen’s public square
and burned at the stake.

Twenty-three years later, however, Joan’s mother and brothers asked
that her case be reopened. Pope Callistus III appointed a commission
to review the matter. In 1456, the new panel repudiated the trial and
verdict and completely restored Joan’s reputation. Once again her
piety and exemplary conduct had triumphed.

https://anastpaul.com/2017/05/30/


Quote/s of the Day – 30 May
“About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know that they are just
one thing and we shouldn’t complicate the matter.”

“Help yourself and God will help you.”
--St. Joan of Arc

“I am the drum on which God is beating out His message.”

“I would rather die than do a thing which I know to be a sin or
against the will of God.”
--St. Joan of Arc


To You we Cry, O Queen of Mercy!
By St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)

To you we cry,
O Queen of Mercy!
Return, that we may
behold you dispensing favours,
bestowing remedies,
giving strength.
Ah, tender Mother!
Tell your all-powerful Son
that we have no more wine.
We are thirsty after the wine of His love,
of that marvelous wine
that fills souls with a holy inebriation,
inflames them,
and gives them the strength to despise
the things of this world
and to seek with ardor heavenly goods.
Amen


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
you, for on you rests the Spirit of God, the Spirit of glory." [1
Peter 4:12-14]


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NO TIME

I knelt to pray but not for long,
I had too much to do.
Must hurry off and get to work,
For bills would soon be due.
And so I said a hurried prayer,
Jumped, up from off my knees,
My Christian duty now was done.
My soul could be at ease.
All through the day I had not time
to speak a word of Christ to friends; they’d laugh at me I feared.
No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry.
No time to give to those in need.
At last t’was time to die.
And when before the Lord one night I stood with down cast eyes.
Within his hands he held a book.
It was the "Book of Life".
God looked into his book and said
Your name I cannot find.
I once was going to write it down
But never found the time.