About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they're just one thing, and we shouldn't complicate the matter.
Interpretation
Joan of Arc emphasizes the simplicity of the connection between Jesus Christ and the Church, suggesting that it should not be overcomplicated.
In this quote, Joan of Arc reflects on the fundamental relationship between Jesus Christ and the Church, asserting that they are inherently linked and that this relationship should not be made more complex than it is. This perspective invites believers to appreciate the core essence of their faith without getting lost in theological intricacies or human interpretations, highlighting the purity of faith and devotion.
In practice
In a sermon about faith, one might reference this quote to emphasize the importance of simplicity in spiritual beliefs.
King of England, and you, duke of Bedford, who call yourself regent of the kingdom of France... settle your debt to the king of Heaven; return to the Maiden, who is envoy of the king of Heaven, the keys to all the good towns you took and violated in France.
I saw them with my bodily eyes as clearly as I see you. And when they departed, I used to weep and wish they would take me with them.
I place trust in God, my creator, in all things; I love Him with all my heart.
Of the love or hatred God has for the English, I know nothing, but I do know that they will all be thrown out of France, except those who die there.
If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.
I would rather die than do something which I know to be a sin, or to be against God's will.
The man who forgets does not forgive, he only loses the remembrance; forgiveness is the offspring of a noble heart, of a generous mind, whilst forgetfulness is only the result of a weak memory, or of an easy carelessness.
Or hast thou known the world so long in vain?
I have always considered imaginative truth to be more profound, more loaded with significance, than every day reality... Everything we dream about, and by that I mean everything we desire, is true (the myth of Icarus came before aviation, and if Ader or Bleriot started flying it is because all men have dreamed of flight). There is nothing truer than myth... Reality does not have to be: it is simply what is.
Legality alone is no guide for a moral people. There are many things in this world that have been, or are, legal but clearly immoral. Slavery was legal. Did that make it moral? South Africaβs apartheid, Nazi persecution of Jews, and Stalinist and Maoist purges were all legal, but did that make them moral?
There's guilt about our treatment of native peoples in modern intellectual life, and an unwillingness to acknowledge there could be anything good about Western culture.
There is nothing to save, now all is lost, but a tiny core of stillness in the heart like the eye of a violet.
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