I am delighted for—and with—everyone who followed the twelve reflections on the Blessed Virgin of Orléans. This is not the first time I have written about her, and—God willing—it will not be the last. Indeed, every time I write about her, it feels fresh, which is connected to the fact that the Virgin of Orléans was a believer who carried out a mission from God. One can never understand this enough. I invite everyone, as they see fit, to look at my earlier publications and listen to the radio play created in her honor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVKE6WCNZ3g
The title of this series on Joan makes clear what my intention was. I wanted to honor the Maid, who suffered a terrible death by public burning at the stake for her mission. Unfortunately, this is often poorly understood in depictions of her, and even less understood is the fact that glory is due first to God, who intervened in the history of France through her and accomplished this work with her help. If we forget this or allow it to fade too far into the background, then we fail to grasp the essential point and remain trapped in a merely human perspective when considering the events surrounding Joan of Arc.