On May 30, 1431, "After having saved France and restored the King to his throne, Joan was abandoned by the very people for whom she had done so much and given over into the hands of her enemies who, out of extreme hatred, condemned her to be burned at the stake... But the saintly heroine gave abundant testimony of her faith, protesting that she had only been obedient to the command of God."
The people we try to help sometimes turn on us, like Our Lord in His Passion, like St. Joan of Arc at the end of her life. But Joan gives us a brilliant example, in this Pentecost week, of one of the gifts of the Holy Ghost - fortitude.
"Whithersoever we turn our gaze, we behold around us dangers, difficulties, and calamities of all kinds. The virtue of fortitude is therefore of supreme necessity for the Christian. By strengthening the soul, this cardinal virtue puts it in the way of avoiding dangers, surmounting difficulties, and conquering or, at least, bearing patiently the ills of life....
"Oh, how valuable is the virtue of fortitude, and of how great necessity to the Christian, who would fight the good fight of the Lord!" ~ Very Rev. Alexis M. Lepicier, OSM, The Fairest Flower of Paradise, imprimatur 1922.
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