Lord God of hosts, who has said in the Gospel: “I have come not to bring peace, but a sword”, arm me for the fight. I ardently desire to fight for Your glory, but I implore You: enliven my courage… Then I will be able to exclaim with Holy King David: “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle…”
O my Beloved! I know what warefare You have destined for me; it is not on the battlefields that I shall fight…
I am a prisoner of Your love; of my own free will I have riveted the fetters that bind me to You and separate me forever from the world by You accursed. My sword is none other than love. With it I will drive the strangers from the land, and will have You proclaimed King over the souls who refuse to submit to Your divine power.
Truly, Lord, You have no need of an instrument as weak as I, but Joan, your virginal and valiant spouse, said: “We must fight, for God to give the victory.”
I will therefore fight for your love until the evening of my life, O my Jesus. And as You were pleased not to take rest on this earth, I want to follow Your example, hoping that the promise which came from Your sacred lips will be fulfilled in me: “If any one follows Me, where I am, there will he will be also, and my Father will honour him” (cf. Jn 12:26).
Prayer composed by St. Therese of the Child Jesus,
inspired by a statue of St. Joan of Arc
