Stay Strong and Remember Your Purpose

I recall a day

not long after I first heard God’s voice.

I had finished my field work

and before the midday bells,

before the sun reached its summit,

I waded far into the meadow.

I was like a shipwrecked sailor,

so deeply alone

no person could hear me

if I sang or screamed.

I felt scared and incapable

of my calling.

Tears streamed from my eyes

as if they might never end.

I tried to empty my mind

of the world.

I knelt and waited

to hear God’s voice.

The field’s absolute stillness

shuddered through my bones.

Above me clouds gathered

like a simmering stew.

I cried aloud,

“Why me?

I am no one.

Maybe You want

one of my brothers instead?”

The caw of a bird,

a great rustle of wind

and the sky shone brilliant

like the clouds were made of sun,

and God said:

It is you I call, Jehanne.

I understood in that moment

that no matter what I had been taught

or seen or thought I knew,

a girl could and would save France.