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Saturday of the
Seventh Week of Easter
JOAN OF ARC
Ezekiel,
Chapter 11, Verse 8
You
fear the sword—that sword I will
bring upon you—oracle of
the Lord GOD.
Christ said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath, for all who take the sword will
perish by the sword.” (Mt. 26:52)
Violence begets violence and takes us away from the
will of God. For violent men death and damnation is the usual final outcome. John Pridmore
is the exception by the grace of God. John says of himself:
I
had what I thought was everything. Money, power, girls, drugs the lot. But yet
there was something missing... This struck me more than ever, when I thought I
had killed someone. I knew I had to change my life... I now work full time for
God. No one pays me. I live completely off his providence, telling my story all
over the Earth.
Sampson himself was also a violent man, who was born
endowed with great physical strength started out following God but failed to
continue walking in the spirit of He that Is. John Maxwell[1]
points out that like many men they failed toward the end of their life because
they dilute the vision God had given them, and have become too comfortable with
their success and lack the self-control to overcome their weaknesses. John’s
advice to leaders is to be self-disciplined using a quote from Plato, “The first and best victory is to conquer
self.” John points out a five-step plan to develop self-discipline in your
life.
1.
Develop and follow your priorities. Time is a precious commodity, do
what’s really important first and release yourself from the rest.
2.
Make a disciplined lifestyle your goal. Set up systems and routines to
ensure you feed the mind, body, spirit and love of neighbor daily.
3.
Challenge your excuses. We all make them; push the
envelope.
4.
Remove rewards until you finish the job. Eat your vegetables first.
5.
Stay focused on results. Focus on the outcomes and not the
difficulties in accomplishing it; envision the change.
Our model for transformation: Jesus went up to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer
to God. (Luke 6:12)
Joan of Arc-her defeat was her Victory[2]
John McCain notes in his study of leadership that
Saint Joan of Arc (feast day: May 30) was an example of leadership that was
characterized by authenticity. At the command of voices that only she could
hear, she rode to battle and saved her country. SHE COULD NOT READ OR WRITE,
BUT SAINTS AND ANGELS SPOKE TO HER. Michael the Archangel, and Catherine and
Margaret, the patron saints of France, commanded the thirteen-year-old peasant
girl to pray vigilantly and attend Mass regularly. She is remembered as very
beautiful, a slight seventeen-year-old girl with black hair who could ride for
long hours in heavy armor without any sign of discomfort. She kept silent for
long periods but could be roused to great anger at men swearing or behaving in
some other sinful manner.
She prayed and
fasted often and seemed most comfortable in the company of poor priests. Before
they embarked, she had dictated to a priest a letter for the English commanders
in Orléans, warning them to “go away back to England . . . or I will drive you
out of France.” This is the first the English had ever heard of Joan of Arc. To
the French, and their dauphin, who now placed their trust in her, she was
becoming a saint. As they marched to Orléans, she saw to the spiritual needs of
her soldiers, ordering them to abandon their vices, to refrain from looting and
harming civilians, to confess their sins and attend Mass regularly, which they
did. Men who had refused to serve Charles in what they believed was a losing
cause now rushed to her standard and prepared for battle. A few days later, the
rest of her army began to arrive with much needed supplies, just as word was
received that another English army was marching to the aid of her enemies. She
went to sleep that night happy in the knowledge that the moment was at hand
when she would accomplish what her saints had commanded her to do. She awoke in
the middle of the night and stirred her generals with the news that they must
attack immediately. In fact, a battle had already begun at the nearest English
fortification. Joan commanded her page to bring her horse, as she dressed in
her armor, and then raced to join the fight carrying her banner. When she
reached her soldiers, she saw that they were losing the battle, but her
presence inspired them, and they rallied to take the fort. After the battle
Joan wept for the fallen, French and English alike. On the next day they took
another English fort, and the day after one more. But the fighting during the
third battle had been ferocious. Joan was wounded by an arrow through her
shoulder as she attempted to scale one of the fort’s walls and was carried to
safety. Seeing her hurt and carried from the field, her troops lost courage,
and the assault was suspended. Some witnesses say she removed the arrow
herself. Others remembered her soldiers treating the wound. Whatever the case,
legend has it that she responded to her soldiers’ fears by telling them to
rally to her when they saw her banner strike the fort’s wall. And when they did
see it, they recovered their courage and took the fort. The next day the
English abandoned the siege. Orléans was saved. Both English and French
generals gave the credit to Joan. She gave it to God. Then she rode to meet
Charles. When they met, she bowed to him, and urged him to hasten to Reims,
where his crown awaited him. But Charles hesitated. His will was weak, for he
was not a man of great courage, and his advisors at court, some of whom
resented Joan’s interference, cautioned him to proceed slowly, for there were
still many powerful English armies in France that had to be destroyed. Joan, as
always, rode in the front, carrying her banner, urging her soldiers to victory.
Inspired by her courage, and by the obvious favor of God that protected her,
they carried the day, routing the English and opening the road to Reims. The
English and all the French, those loyal to the dauphin and those who fought for
Henry, recognized that this strange young girl, now known as the Maid of
Orléans, must be in the service of a sovereign more powerful than any earthly
king. Joan in the end like the eternal King she served was abandoned by her
earthly King and was captured by the Burundians. John of Luxembourg took her to
his castle, where, she twice tried to escape, once by jumping from a castle
tower into the moat below. Attempts to ransom her were refused, as were French
attempts to liberate her by force. After several months, Luxembourg handed Joan
over to the English, and she was taken to the city of Rouen, where a corrupt
bishop, Pierre Cauchon, was instructed to put her on trial for heresy. The
rules of war did not permit the English to condemn Joan for opposing them in
battle. So, they sought her death by falsely accusing her of witchcraft.
Cauchon tried for weeks to compel her to confess, but despite threats of
torture and execution, she steadfastly refused to divulge her conversations
with Charles or to concede that the saints who spoke to her were demons or
merely inventions of her own blasphemy. She was denied permission to attend
Mass and receive the sacraments. She was often kept in chains and became very
ill. Yet she stayed true to herself, and to her saints. She wore a dress when
they brought her to a church cemetery to hear her sentence read, condemning her
to be burned at the stake. She asked that her conviction be appealed to the
pope. Her persecutors refused her. And then, Joan of Arc, for the first and
only time in her brief life, tried to be someone she was not. Fearing the
flames, she confessed to being a heretic and recanted her claim to have heard
and obeyed her saints, and begged her enemies for mercy. Mercy they had little of
but having taken from her what their armies could not, they no longer thought
her life such a great thing that it could not be spared. She was now nothing
more than a confessed imposter. They had wanted to destroy her truth, that she
was God’s messenger. Having done so, it mattered little whether she died or
suffered long imprisonment. Their work done, they left her in her cell, to the
taunts and abuses of the guards, and commanded her to dress only in women’s
clothes. When they next saw her, a few days later, she was attired in the
clothes of a boy. She had recovered her courage and her truth. Her saints had
reproached her for denying them, and she had begged their forgiveness. She had
become her true self again. She was the Maid of Orléans, a pretty, pious nineteen-year-old
girl who had left her father’s house and taken up arms for more than a year, as
heaven had commanded her. And with heaven’s encouragement she had defeated
France’s enemies in battle after battle, frightened and awed the bravest
English heart, rallied a nation to her banner, and made a weak, defeated man a
king. God’s messenger went bravely to her death, forgiving her accusers and
asking only that a priest hold high a crucifix for her to see it above the
flames. She raised her voice to heaven, calling out to her saints and her
Savior. Even her enemies wept at the sight. Her executioner was shaken with
remorse, and an anguished English soldier who witnessed the crime feared for
his soul. “God forgive us,” he cried, “we have burned a saint.”
Joyous
Preparation for Pentecost[1]
Our hearts need to be
fixed within the Liturgical Year. We can find rest and consolation and
direction with and from the liturgy of the Church.
Ascension--We
Are Filled with Joy
Last week (or this past
Sunday) the Church celebrated the Solemnity of
the Ascension.
Formerly in the liturgy, the Paschal Candle would be snuffed and removed
from the sanctuary after the Gospel, indicating how Jesus had left us. This
practice has changed because it's important to show that the Easter season
continues through Pentecost. The feast of the Ascension does mark the end of
the Paschal Mystery, which includes the Passion, Death,
Resurrection, Ascension of Jesus into heaven and Pentecost, but not
an end to Easter.
Every year I find myself
with mixed emotions contemplating the Ascension. I always think the Apostles
would have felt some sadness and they would have missed Jesus. They
thought they had lost Him completely in His death on the cross, only to have
the impossible and unthinkable of Him rising from the dead. Jesus was
alive! For forty days Jesus appeared to them at various times. His
presence wasn't the same as before, as He didn't eat and sleep and live with
them anymore, but His resurrection and presence was even more of a gift. And
then He gives them His final commission and ascends to the Father, not to
return in an appearance with His glorified body. Did the
Apostles sometimes hope He would appear, or did they know that this was
the last time they would see Him? It feels like it should be a sad day, with
the Apostles missing the human presence of Jesus.
But the Gospel for the Ascension clearly says:
They did him
homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in
the temple praising God (Luke
24:53). The whole Ascension liturgy is filled with reference to joy and
rejoicing. The Collect opens with Gladden us with holy joys, almighty God,
and make us rejoice with devout thanksgiving.... The Responsorial Psalm
from Psalm 47 is full of rejoicing:
God
mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
What is this joy we are to
have, when it seems bittersweet for Jesus to leave us?
The answer lies in the
words of the Solemn Blessing:
And
may you, who believe he is seated
with the Father in his majesty,
know with joy the fulfillment of his promise
to stay with you until the end of time.
He is gone physically, but
remains with us until the end of time. And that is the secret of our joy.
Preparing
for the Departure
Starting in the thirteenth
chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus is with His Apostles at His Last Supper.
There He is giving His final instructions, His most important teachings before
His death. Instead of the liturgy unfolding these during Lent, we begin to hear
them in the middle of the Fourth Week of Easter. The final weeks of the
Easter season the liturgy has been preparing us for this final departure
and coming of the Paraclete:
"I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I
have loved you, so you also should love one another." "I am the
True Vine, you are the branches, remain in Me."
We hear the words of
Jesus, His final instructions, but this time we hear them knowing in the
fullness of the Faith; we hear them in the comfort of knowing the truth of
the Paschal Mystery and Pentecost. And the week or nine days between
Ascension and Pentecost we hear the promise of the Advocate or the Holy Spirit.
We await the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. All through Easter we hear
in the Preface how we are "overcome with paschal joy." That is how we
can look at these final instructions and anticipation for Pentecost, with the
joy of knowing that He will remain with us always and we have the Advocate sent
to us on Pentecost. Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
·
Pentecost
with Mary and the Apostles -- celebrating May with Mary
·
Pentecost
and Confirmation --
The overflowing gifts of the Holy Spirit and celebrating that emphasis at
home.
·
The
Solemnity of Pentecost: An Elementary Feast -- The elements of earth,
wind, fire and water all in Pentecost.
[1]https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/blog/index.cfm?id=253
Daily
Devotions
·
Saturday Litany of
the Hours Invoking the Aid of Mother Mary
·
Offering to the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
[1] John Maxwell, The Leadership Bible, 1982.
[2] McCain, John and Salter, Mark. (2005) Character is destiny. Random
House, New York.
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