Bernard Vaughan S J

Life Lessons of Blessed (Saint) Joan of Arc Bernard Vaughan S J

CHAPTER I 11 HER CHILDHOOD AND CALL TO ARMS 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."- I Cor. i, 27-29. CHAPTER II 31 HER RELIEF OF ORLEANS AND CROWNING OF THE KING She kept him safe from his enemies, and she defended him from seducers. . . . She forsook not the just when he was sold, but delivered him from sinners; she went down with him into the pit; and in bands she left him not, till she brought him the sceptre of the kingdom, and power against those that oppressed him."-Wisdom x, 12-14. CHAPTER III 55 HER CAPTURE AND INIQUITOUS CONDEMNATION "In Thy sight are all they that afflict me: my heart bath expected reproach and misery. And I looked for one that would grieve together with me, but there was none; and for one that would comfort me, and I found none."-Ps. lxviii, 21-22. CHAPTER IV 81 HER DEATH AT THE STAKE AND HER TRIUMPH Behold I am in your hands - do with me what is good and right in your eyes. But know ye, and understand, that if you put me to death, you will shed innocent blood against your own selves, and against this city, and the inhabitants thereof. For in truth the Lord sent me to you, to speak all these words in your hearing." -, Jer. xxvi, 14-15. CHAPTER V 106 HER REHABILITATION AND WORLD-WIDE APOTHEOSIS "I beseech those that shall read this book, that they be not shocked at these calamities, but that they consider the things that happened, not as being for the destruction, but for the correction of our nation . . . for though He chastise His people with adversity, He forsaketh them not."-II Mac. vi. THE arrangements of Divine Providence are inexhaustible. We live in an age when the energies of women are of necessity taking new directions. The old home life is impossible or insufficient for many of them, and they have to go forth abroad to live often solitary lives, to work out a career unaided, and to enter upon pursuits which until recent times were confined to the stronger sex. It is useless to ignore this tendency. It arises from causes, which cannot be controlled. But while this transformation and development of womanly activity goes on, it is all-important that the sacred characteristics which give to womanhood its power and its charm should not be overshadowed by the stress and toil which accompany the new conditions in which it is now placed. And in this moment the Church of God sets up before our gaze the beautiful figure of Blessed Joan the Maid, called by God from home and given a work in which many brave men had failed. She did her work, she went in and out in camp and city, but she still remained the gentle, simple maiden. May her story, told so eloquently by the writer of the following pages, teach our Catholic maidens, and women of every degree, how to do whatever God puts into their hands to do, and yet keep untouched and bright all the glory of their womanhood. X FRANCIS, Archbishop of Westminster.