The Philosophical Foundations of Le Royaume
Phase 4 – The Kingdom Blessed of St. Joan and St. Thérèse
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The fourth phase of Le Royaume is symbolic theology. We move further into the mysteries of our faith. Our journey through the heart in phase three moves us toward the unknowable, toward the dark light of faith in phase four. We cannot understand the kingdom toward which St. Joan and St. Thérèse are leading us other than through an analogous relationship with the sensible world we know. Symbolic theology starts with a literal understanding of the sensible and goes beyond it to demonstrate a reality we could never know. It reveals something to us about God. Its purpose is to draw us closer to God.
“{Symbolic theology, however, is intended for a select circle and intends more than instructing its members in the faith: it would raise up further those who are striving for holiness (since they have already experienced a higher enlightenment). Through its images it unveils mysteries of a suprasensible world for them. Through these images it would help them to free themselves from the sensible world more and more and bring them to the point where they no longer have need of sensible images at all.}*”
~ Stein, Edith. Knowledge and Faith (The Collected Works of Edith Stein, vol. 8) . ICS Publications. Kindle Edition.
Symbolic theology also serves the purpose of drawing others to God. Our symbolism reaches deeply into the souls of those so inclined by good will. Our great commission is to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and to evangelize the world. Our symbolism plays a part by evoking a good will response from others. This is the goal of Le Royaume and her French Catholic symbolism.
“It is possible that the very images of symbolic theology evoke the enlightenment, and that its making facts that witness to a higher effectiveness intuitable for us may awaken faith in a higher reality. Clearly, from such faith springs the desire to come into personal contact with this higher world now. This is precisely the aim of symbolic theology. It would be a cheirogogia, a ‘leading by the hand.’ Through the mediumship of a sense expression, one mind speaks to another in order to lead it into a spiritual realm and to form it therefrom into a purely spiritual understanding.”
~ Ibid. Edith Stein
Le Royaume’s symbolic theology is the Kingdom Blessed of St. Joan and St. Thérèse. It is the kingdom of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Catholic and Royal France “on earth as it is in Heaven,” St. Joan of Arc saw France as a heavenly reality, the perfect form of which is in the center of Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart. It is a kingdom where Jesus Christ is King, and the earthly king is a steward of the realm for Jesus. For St. Joan, the Church exists both in heaven and on earth. Similarly, so does the Eldest Daughter of the Church, the Kingdom of France. We do not see earthly France as anything other than a shadow of the heavenly. This is the meaning of Le Royaume’s symbolism, which we call the Kingdom Blessed of St. Joan and St. Thérèse. It captures that which we know sensibly on earth and draws us upward to something more, something mysterious and grand.
“We must be content to point out how symbolic theology should be interpreted as a way to know God, and that now seems to have been fairly settled: symbolic theology is speaking about God in images taken from the world of sense.”
~ Op. Cit. Edith Stein
Le Royaume is a symbolic representation of the Kingdom of God. It relies on a multitude of various interpretations. Its goal is to draw us up to it, to God, and to draw others with us.
Dancing with St Thérèse of Lisieux I am so happy with young Saint Thérèse Toward the sunlit field she beckoned me From dark and awful woods, I crawled in need To follow her sweet Dance of Destiny By true obedience of faith, she sways Across the landscape hidden in my soul Thérèse portrays her little way of love With laughter flitting over distant knolls I hear her music everywhere out here As softly she swirls joyously with mirth Empowering Heaven’s strings to play so well The music of God’s love throughout the earth I have had people say this can’t be done That one can’t dance with saints who live above How true perhaps for those who are mature This dance requires a child’s simplistic love ~ From my book, Little Flowers and Fiery Towers: Poems and poetic prose in honor of St. Thérèse of Lisieux and St. Joan of Arc.