{"id":33,"date":"2012-05-30T12:06:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-30T18:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/egregioustwaddle\/2012\/05\/hearing-voices\/"},"modified":"2016-05-02T11:10:10","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T17:10:10","slug":"hearing-voices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/egregioustwaddle\/2012\/05\/hearing-voices.html","title":{"rendered":"Hearing Voices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>\n\n\n\n
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On every thirtieth day of May, being the anniversary of the death of the said most blessed daughter of God, there shall in every Catholic church to the end of time be celebrated a special office in commemoration of her; and it shall be lawful to dedicate a special chapel to her, and to place her image on its altar in every such church. And it shall be lawful and laudable for the faithful to kneel and address their prayers through her to the Mercy Seat.<\/span>
\n~ George Bernard Shaw, St Joan<\/i><\/p>\n

In a passage from his book My Life with the Saints<\/i>, Fr James Martin SJ admits to some ambivalence about Joan of Arc, whose feast we celebrate today. There\u2019s a deep strangeness about her, an otherness that made her stick out like un pouce\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/i>irrit\u00e9<\/i> in her own time and would render her instantly certifiable in ours:<\/span><\/p>\n

Joan confuses me as much as she attracts me.\u00a0 Because, basically, she acts like a crazy young girl, hearing voices, leaving her family, going to war, and dying for an unseen person. . . .<\/span>\u00a0Even St. Francis of Assisi would seem more at home than our world than Joan.\u00a0 To many people today Francis would seem attractive and compelling, much like Mother Teresa.\u00a0 Joan would probably just seem crazy.<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ambivalence is Joan all over. There\u2019s no better example of the parallax view that is human reputation than the Maid. In life, was she saint or heretic? Witch or visionary? Patriot or insurrectionist? Sexual transgressor or humble shepherdess? Sword of divine will or tool of earthly powers? In death, is she a liberating feminist role model or the pinup girl for ultra-rightist French nationalism? The answer, which depends entirely on your angle of sight, is always yes.<\/span>
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\nI have loved Joan since learning, in first grade, that through some linguistic alchemy we bear the same name, rooted in John, and so she is my patron saint. What young Catholic girl of the 1950s wouldn\u2019t choose Joan\u2013with her horse, her courage, her muddiness, her cussing, her chic cropped hair and kickass armor\u2013over that only other role model we were offered, the simpering quiescence (pace<\/i>, Max Lindenman) of the perpetually pure Maria Goretti? But of course I only loved the Joan and despised the Marietta of my own perspective.<\/span>
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\nJoan herself, according to the transcripts of her trial, never quite knew who she was either. She first asserted, then renounced, then re-asserted the authenticity of the heavenly voices she heard\u2013St Michael, St Catherine, and St Margaret. This is the side of Joan I love and identify with today, that struggle to determine whether I am conforming myself to God\u2019s will for me. It\u2019s a process on which a chorus as loud as Joan\u2019s ecclesiastical jurors seeks daily to weigh in. And that\u2019s not counting the voices in my head.<\/span>
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\nFor, crazy as Joan still sounds to so many, don\u2019t we all hear voices? We hear the voice of our culture, chivying us along with ads and music videos and tweets and Facebook posts. We hear, if we are honest, the voice of our own ego, our pride and rebelliousness, chanting over and over \u201cYou\u2019re not the boss of me!\u201d We hear, if we are not entirely numbed, the voice of our conscience, what Joyce called \u201cthe agenbite of inwit,\u201d the pricking of our thumbs, the chirping of Juminy Cricket, the noise like a great wind or a still, small voice. If we are lucky (or cursed, or crazy, as other angles might have it), we may hear otherworldly voices the way Joan said she did, and we will be faced, as she was, with the terrible task of discerning whether they are angelic or demonic.<\/span>
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\nOn this my name day I want to pledge myself more faithfully to that discernment, that listening out of what God calls me to do, and less to worrying about how the rest of the world sees me. With God\u2019s grace, in the life of each us, the parallax view of discipleship resolves all ambivalences, all perspectives, into the beatific vision Joan enjoys forever from her place in the great golden rose surrounding the Mercy Seat. St Joan of Arc, pray for us, that we may join you there.<\/span>
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\nMore on the Maid<\/b><\/span>
\nYou can read Fr Jim Martin\u2019s excerpt, \u201cThe Mystery of Joan of Arc,\u201d here<\/a><\/b>. I am particularly grateful for the introduction to what is now one of my favorite images of Joan.<\/span>
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\nFrank Weathers invokes Joan<\/a><\/b> as a model of discipleship for lay Catholics in this time of spiritual warfare.<\/span>
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\nAnd this is horribly sentimental and jingoistic, but I adore Henry Van Dyke\u2019s The Broken Soldier and the Maid of France<\/i>, which you can read online<\/a><\/b> in a charming old edition. Merci beaucoup<\/i> to Max Lindenman<\/a><\/b> for the H\/T.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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