The Philosophical Foundations of Le Royaume
The General Model
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The following is an introduction to a much more detailed model for Le Royaume, which manifests devotion to St. Joan of Arc and describes how it methodically has revealed itself since the “divine glance” in the Fall of 2008.
This devotion encompasses Joan’s influence on me subjectively and the material and spiritual world objectively. This claim is based on what we know of her historically, religiously (as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church), and supernaturally as described in her own words and those of her contemporaries. Joan interacted with Heaven, with the infinite and eternal, to successfully manage a miraculous military campaign in the temporal realm that would free France and change the course of history. She was not inspired to do so through her own subjective meditations.
On the contrary, Heaven interrupted Joan’s life and spoke with her. Joan spoke back. Heaven appeared to her through manifestations of the angels and saints in Heaven, namely, St. Michael the Archangel, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and St. Margaret of Antioch. Joan neither sought such manifestation (it took her years to fully prepare for her calling despite nearly daily visitations from Heaven) nor understood it when it began with her.
Heaven explained to Joan the will of God, the eternal and infinite, for the earthly political realm of France, the temporal and finite. She received specific requests for action to deal with what are actual historical events (such as lifting the siege of Orléans). These demands revealed that Jesus Christ is, in Joan’s own words, “the true King of France” while the earthly king is His steward or lieutenant. Upon this alone, we might contemplate for years.
Heaven told Joan of Arc what to do and when to do it. She did what Heaven requested, by her choice and of her own free will, in the face of insurmountable odds, and the results were miraculous. This is all astonishing. For these reasons and more, our devotion is based not only on the historical and religious but on the spiritual and supernatural. Joan was a type of sacramental, an “efficient cause” for the Divine Will, in determining the historical outcome of the Kingdom of France. Joan of Arc is not to be ignored.
This devotion makes a further provocative claim – that it is based on the spiritual lineage of St. Mary Magdalene, who brought the spirit of the Apostolic Age from the foot of the Cross and the tomb of the resurrection to the shores of Provence, or what we know today as “France.” She landed there with her sister Martha and brother Lazarus (who had been raised from the dead by Jesus) after escaping persecution in Jerusalem and spent the last thirty years of her life living in a cave as a solitary contemplative. Jesus touched Mary Magdalene on the forehead after His resurrection, and her skin from that spot remained incorrupt for centuries, as noted by those who discovered her remains in the Middle Ages. At the foot of the Cross and three days later, through that divine touch, the precursor to our “divine glance” which carries this devotion forth through the ages, we see the seed of a royal spiritual line given to Mary Magdalene by Our Lord Jesus Christ, to bring forward into what later would become France, “the lily” of Our Lady, the Virgin Mary’s, heart.
We call this line the House of New Bethany, named after Mary Magdalene’s home in Bethany, and understand it to be a spiritual species in the genus of Our Lord’s form of the mystical kingdom of France in Heaven and in the more prominent family of those devoted to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart around the world.
On the discovery of Mary Magdalene’s remains and the uncorrupt skin on her forehead:
“The most remarkable sign of all was the small piece of skin that was found to be attached to the brow. It was smooth, clear, and lighter than the remainder of the body, and was the size of two fingertips. As it resembled live skin, it was subsequently named the “Noli me tangere” (Do not touch me)-the words spoken by Christ to Mary Magdalene at the Resurrection; it was believed to have been the touch of the risen Lord on the brow of Mary Magdalene. This small particle of skin remained unchanged for another five hundred years, and no suitable explanation was ever found for the phenomenon. Five centuries after its discovery, it finally detached itself from the brow, and was placed in a separate reliquary.”
~ www.mysticsofthechurch.com
Next, in developing our model… we will discuss the details of this devotion to St. Joan of Arc, Le Royaume, and the House of New Bethany.
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