Good to know of our own Joan's special connection to  Joan of Arc.

My only connection found through a family genealogy containing many Browns,
was one Joan of Arc Brown and  a preacher Solomon "Glory" Brown.

Didn't the church finally make Joan Saint Joan?
Ray
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joan Snyder" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2005 9:43 AM
Subject: Joan of Arc & my experience


> when i was born, some 54 years ago, my parents named me Joan
> Blessington. that's it-no middle name, just Joan. my dad insisted that
> one patron saint was enough and when that patron was Joan of Arc, she
> would be all that i needed to protect me and give me the courage and
> strength that i would need growing up. joan of arc has always been my
> hero and my role-model. when i got bullied during grade school, i would
> flee into the safety of Joan's protection and it was all i needed to
> outlive the bullying and become popular on my own, without ever having
> to resort to being a bully myself. as i grew older, i constantly read
> about Joan and her ability to say "yes" to God when even her own Church
> would wound her so mortally. i am a Catholic and it greatly disturbed me
> that the Princes of the Church could lable her a sinner & a witch and
> say that the voices she heard were from satan. and i wondered how in the
> world a little girl could stand up to the one-sided & absolutely single
> minded politics of the time. and she went to her death with more courage
> and strength than i could ever hope to emulate. i was outraged when i
> thought of how they later said: "oops, sorry, our mistake, she was
> indeed a saint." my house is filled with Joan of Arc pictures, mementos
> and collectables (not that i am obsessive about Joan, i also have lots
> of things about the Beatles, frogs & collections of cobalt blue glass &
> also of birthday angels). i have been called joan of rome (i live in
> Rome, Illinois) in a front page article in my diocesian newspaper. the
> article dealt with the struggle that had raged within me for the past 16
> years, trying to balance my Catholic faith and my belief in the need for
> embryonic stem cell research, using Joan of Arc to help me to come to
> some viable solution that i could live with. then one day, while
> visiting the stem cell research lab of my frind, Dr. Craig Cady at
> Bradley University, he asked me if i would like to see some actual stem
> cells. as i looked into the microscope and saw these funny looking,
> squishy little moving around thangs-i thought to myself "so this is what
> all the fuss is about."
> And then i felt the presence of God, more strongly than i have felt His
> presence, even during Communion. This wasn't the anrgy, judgemental God
> who makes people suffer becasue they are interfering with His plan for
> human reproduction, but rather a gentle & understanding God who
> enveloped me in His embace and whispered to me: "look what knowledge i
> have given you...but it must be used wisely for the good of mankind." it
> was at that moment that i realizeed that the Catholic Church only
> mirrors the attitudes & the ideas of the people (those in charge & to a
> much lesser extent the laity of the Church) and that those attitudes and
> policies can only be changed from changing people's minds one by one.
> some i iknow, are beyond changing, but like Joan of Arc, she would never
> quit until her mission was accomplished. now whether it is getting my
> butt back up after one of the twenty or so times a day that i fall or in
> my work to help make stem cell research a reality, or even if it is just
> raising awareness, my first call for help is to Joan of Arc. Even though
> it seemed as if her Church had deserted her, she never lost sight of the
> goal-to serve God no matter what happened to her.
>
> --
> Joan Blessington Snyder   54/14
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.pwnkle.com/jes/jes_web/index.htm
> “Hang tough……..no way through it but to do it.”
> Chris in the Morning      Northern Exposure
>
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