The United States owes her existence to the Kingdom of France. Today is a good day to remember this fact and stand in solidarity with the present Republic of France. French philosophy, religion, and culture have enriched the United States of America. Millions of us go to visit France to see the roots of much that is good in the world today.
When Hope and I went, what we saw gave us hope that the heart of this great nation still was beating. We also feared that the beat had become weak as too many churches were empty, bishops nominal, and decadence advanced. We saw so few children.
And yet true France was there to be found, not the France of decadent night clubs for tourists, but the France of Saint Louis, Joan of Arc, and Louis XIV. France is not dead, she sleeps. Perhaps the City of Saint Genevieve is awakening. Legend says that her effectual prayers saved the city from the barbarians. Where we find prayer, we know where the revival will have been nourished during the long slumber and there is a place in Paris where prayer is continuous.
One of our best days was spent praying at Sacre Coeur. A great statue of Joan of Arc reminds any visitor that the humblest human being is created in God’s image and can become powerful in His hands. She looks confidently out over the capitol of the nation she saved from ruin by her genius and the virtue of saying a total “yes” to God.
A nun at Sacre Coeur explained to us the national repentance that built the Church and the continuous prayer there for France in the last one hundred fifty years. She helped us find a place to pray and also suggested places where we could find traces of good the King, Saint Louis of France.
We rushed to the Cathedral of Notre Dame only to discover this part of the church was closed. By God’s good grace, a wonderful and kind security guard allowed us into the place in Notre Dame where some relics of Saint Louis can be seen. While the sounds of the Roman mass filled the Cathedral, we gazed in wonder at remnants of the reign of a King who was friend to philosophers, the poor, and a defender of France.
The past is a prologue to the future. Pray as did Genevieve that Paris be saved from the new barbarians. Act with justice and mercy with courage as did King Saint Louis. Commit to God to deliver His message as did Joan.
We should not be hopeless. Our times are not as dark as those of Genevieve, Islam as powerful as in the days of Louis, or France as weak as when Joan saved her.
Most of all, stand in solidarity with the nuns and people of Sacre Coeur that ancient France once again burst forth in beauty like the Lily of the Valley in a renewal of a free and holy France.
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