Royaume France
Royaume France
The story, as it appears to me, begins with the teleology of the bimodal phenomena of St. Thérèse of Lisieux (1984) and St. Joan of Arc (2008). The model begins with the phenomenological reduction of the Royal French hearts of our saintly sisters.
La réduction
La réduction française philosophique de Ste. Jehanne d'Arc reveals a transcendent kingdom of the French royal hearts of St. Joan of Arc and St. Thérèse of Lisieux. The reduction developed through the influence of the life of St. Joan of Arc, Thérèsian Carmelite spirituality, and the philosophical lens of Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross). The kingdom’s purpose is Faith, Hope, and Love "on earth as it is in Heaven" through the majesty of French Catholic spirituality and True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Its pedagogical method is phenomenological devotion to the combined hearts and spirituality of St. Joan of Arc and St. Thérèse of Lisieux.
Mission
The kingdom’s mission is the sanctification of souls through devotion to St. Joan of Arc, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and the renaissance in our hearts of the Blessed Virgin Mary's Catholic and Royal France.
Vision
The kingdom’s vision is the sovereign establishment on earth as it is in Heaven of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Kingdom of Catholic and Royal France bathed in the mystically beautiful light of the combined spirituality of Sts. Joan of Arc and Thérèse of Lisieux.
Catholic and Royal France in our hearts is by necessity counterrevolutionary. We are obedient to the bimodal phenomena of the hearts of St. Joan and St. Thérèse. This requires the rejection of modernity’s revolutionary philosophies, spiritualities, and institutions. The counterrevolution is necessary that we might clear the rubble of the Protestant Revolution and the Enlightenment from the path of the Dogmatic Creed before us leading to the Kingdom of God.
Royaume France is a Counterrevolutionary Mode of Being
Royaume France is a mode of being transcend-ing in obedience to the transcend-ent hidden in the phenomena. This statement sets Royaume France apart from non-believing modernity, which focuses on the former (transcending) over the latter (transcendent), in a falling culture where metaphysics has practically disappeared. In contradistinction, we transcend through the combined hearts of St. Joan and St. Thérèse in obedience to the bimodal phenomena of their Royal French Catholic hearts revealing a universally transcendent, dogmatic pathway to the Kingdom.
Royaume France's purpose is to inspire others to make a dogmatic confession of the Catholic faith in the spirit of True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary to establish the obedience demanded by the phenomena of the combined hearts of St. Joan of Arc and St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Our means of inspiring that confession of faith under the mantle of the Blessed Virgin is devotion to the heavenly form of Our Lady's Catholic and Royal France under the patronage of our saintly sisters, the two co-secondary patronesses of France.
The Catholic and Royal model, constituted through the phenomenological reduction of the combined hearts of St. Joan and St. Thérèse, is a transcendent form of traditional French Catholic spirituality designed to keep us on "the Trail of the Dogmatic Creed with St. Joan and St. Thérèse" to the Kingdom of God. Without the obedience to Catholic dogma imparted by such a model, we likely will be swept away by the prevailing hurricane-force winds of modern culture, philosophies, and disoriented spiritualities. Our goal is Heaven; our obedient understanding of the only means to attain it is the Holy Catholic Church; our foundational spirituality is devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; the manifestation of all this is the "Royal Heart." The Royal Heart is a spiritual mode of being leading to a Catholic worldview in temporal affairs.
Foundational to reaping the blessings of obedience required by the Royal Hearts of St. Joan and St. Thérèse is the counterrevolutionary rejection of the grave errors of modernity - its ideologies, philosophical manifestations, cultural premises, and socio-political structures.
Royal Hearts are inherently, substantively opposed to modernity for the simple reason that we are for the Kingdom of God. In the world, we are different from "reactionaries" who simply "conserve" the present. Royal Hearts have a positive understanding of the Kingdom of God as our model "on earth as it is in Heaven," however imperfectly we instantiate that Kingdom. Therefore, we oppose modernity with its progressive liberalism not because we are "reactionaries" who are "afraid of change," but because we are Catholic and Royal Hearts pointing to a superior model in the center of the Immaculate Heart of Mary where Jesus Christ reigns in all His glory. We are "for" the better manifestation. We "oppose" what draws us further from it.
Thus, we often share immediate goals with reactionaries. It is not unusual that we oppose the same progressive evils. However, we are not reactionaries attempting to conserve the existing ways; we always seek movement toward the superior model, a very different and life-giving motive. The interests of reactionaries and royalists sometimes coincide but are grounded in different paradigms.
Our goal as a Royal Heart, and as reflected in Royaume France, is the rejection of modernity for the glory of Mary and to help usher in the reign of her Immaculate Heart. This model provides lasting spiritual support in that effort. Only those who "endure to the end" will be saved. To reject modernity for the sake of the Blessed Virgin Mary is to take a step away from the gates of Hades and toward the Kingdom of God.
This is Royaume France, the "form" of True Devotion to Mary instantiated in us that we call the "Royal Heart" of St. Joan of Arc and St. Thérèse of Lisieux.
Mary Magdalene’s journey from the foot of the Cross to the shores of Provence is the archetype of the renaissance of Catholic and Royal France in our hearts. In this story, Magdalene is the foundress of a heavenly royal line we call the House of New Bethany. She is our model and protagonist of the spirituality emerging from our journey with St. Joan and St. Thérèse. We are with Christ at the foot of the Cross; we journey; we contemplate, and we bring forth that which is hidden and is to be made manifest (Mark 4:22). Magdalene constitutes the syntax of our intellect as heirs of her royal line. Her syntax forms the soft light in the darkness of faith guiding us to our heavenly kingdom.
The true France of St. Joan of Arc is a Heavenly form in the center of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. St. Mary Magdalene founded Catholic and Royal France as the preeminent daughter of the Church on earth through her mystical marriage with Christ in Heaven. France, as the reflection of a Heavenly form, was founded spiritually by St. Mary Magdalene on the shores of Provence. She brought the apostolic spirit from the foot of the cross and the tomb of the resurrected Christ to what would later be known as France. This was the Providential design bequeathed to France through St. Mary Magdalene and which later would be defended by St. Joan of Arc and spiritually renewed by St. Thérèse.
Les cœurs de Jeanne et Thérèse
Royaume France is the Kingdom Blessed of St. Joan and St. Thérèse; its spirituality is the combined hearts of St. Joan of Arc and St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Our community consists of those devoted to these two saintly sisters and their royal French hearts. We seek Our Lady's mystical Kingdom of Catholic and Royal France with them and in union with St. Mary Magdalene as our spiritual foundress. May the Father’s Kingdom come, and his will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. May the reign of the Immaculate Heart of Mary be quickened through this devotion.
Our project
Royaume France attempts to model the journey with St. Joan and St. Thérèse from its spiritual beginnings to its philosophical foundations. We prefer not to promote our work aggressively beyond making others aware of its existence. We work solely on a gather or disperse basis.
How do I join?
Our vision for Royaume France is to remain an informal network of contemplatives devoted to the combined hearts of St. Joan and St. Thérèse and to the form of Catholic and Royal France in the center of the Immaculate Heart of Mary where Jesus Christ reigns in all his glory. There is no formal organization or movement; however, we constitute a Jehannian and Thérèsian inspired community living the prayer of the Our Father and praying especially for Our Lady's Catholic and Royal France to come "on earth as it is in Heaven." We carry with us the evangelical boldness of St. Joan powered by the courageous Carmelite spirituality of St. Thérèse.
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