By: Sister Mary Therese



The night is down on Domremy,

Dark wings have circled every tree,

Shut out the stars and steeped the sky,

In anguish lifted like a cry.



Shaking the young stars from her gown,

Pushing the moon back, Joan peers down,

On lands by terror twisted bare,

That shakes with battle everywhere.



A blight is on the world again;

A blight is on the souls of man;

And dark is death and dark is birth,

As sorrow runs along the earth.



How can she keep her soul in calm,

When towers of Reims and Notre Dame,

Send up their cry of muted bells,

That tear her breast with moans and knells?



How must her hands have ached to hold,

Her shining sword when pain patrolled,

The glory-ridden crimson shore,

Of Batan and Corregidor.



How must her lips have burned to cry,

A challenge to the southern sky,

For heroes who would never see,

The sunset stain the Coral Sea.



Young Joan is restless in the sky;

Young Joan is burning to defy,

The sign that sickens men with pride,

Back to the wars young Joan would ride!



To rout out the bitter pagan horde,

O God of peace, give Joan a sword!

And in this moment, send her down,

To Domremy, to every town!



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http://catholicpoemsandstories.blogspot.com/

Beautiful -- it struck me that if we are to be her sword we must have all the dross heated out of us and be hammered out pure and sharp -- we must love suffering.

Yes, indeed!

Which reminds me of how the Bible says that God watches over us like a silversmith.  If you don't know the background...  

In order to have silver reach perfection is has to be heated in a very hot piercing fire almost to the point of melting.  Just before it melts the silversmith removes it from the fire.  The way that the silversmith knows exactly when to remove it is when he can see his reflection in the silver.

 In a similar way, in order to perfect us God gives us crosses which makes us nearly melt down, but takes them away just before it becomes too much for us.  And by bearing these crosses well, we become a reflection of the God.