Over the weekend, my parish prayed a litany of saints for the people of Paris. A litany is simply a series of petitions read by clergy with a congregational response.
And, in this instance, the petitions were invocations of the saints of France, the response being "pray for your people."
I was greatly moved by this particular display of grief, especially when we invoked the help of a well known French warrior who is in fact a patron saint of France: the Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc.
Somehow, in the wake of what happened last Friday, it felt right to invoke this teenaged mystic.
While her legacy and actual contribution to the battles she partook in is disputed, what is clear is that St. Joan d'Arc exhibited leadership and compassion; she had grown up among the common people, and she wished to end the bloodshed that threatened them and their way of life.
Her legacy is especially poignant as we recall that the reasons for Islamic State's continued existence are mostly political, as the Western allies remain divided and inconsistent over what to do with this most recent incarnation of evil.
Like Joan d'Arc's own time, internal division is preventing any way to victory, and as tragedies around the world have made clear, it is the common people who ultimately pay the price of such indecision.
This cannot continue much longer without political repercussions for leaders around the world. As people begin to believe their governments cannot defend them, it is all but certain that they will begin to take matters into their own hands. And that is a type of chaos no one wants.
In the end, the City of Light was momentarily darkened, and the great nation that made "liberty, equality, fraternity" a credo for all of Europe has been challenged by a deadly enemy.
Our hearts go out to Paris and as one we mourn with those who have suffered this senseless act of violence.
But France must remember its history and invoke its inheritance if it is to turn the tide.
That begins with the simplest of words: St. Joan d'Arc, pray for your people.
