I'm Walter Emerson, a retired corporate executive who writes on phenomenological Catholic devotion to St. Joan of Arc and St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Reflecting over the course of a decade on "the experience of an experience” with St. Joan, these saintly sisters led me on a psychically transformative journey out of the darkness of the modern world to the mystical Kingdom of Catholic and Royal France in the center of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Under their guidance, I came from near death to life in Catholic hope. I share this journey with others in the hope that they, too, will receive a deep devotion to St. Joan and St. Thérèse, accompanied by a life transforming dogmatic confession of Catholic faith through their French, Royal, Catholic spirituality.
“But you are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people: that you may declare his virtues, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”[1]
My personal mission:
The reign of the Immaculate Heart Mary through consecration to St. Joan of Arc and St. Thérèse of Lisieux and the Renaissance of Catholic and Royal France in hearts worldwide.
My background:
My writings are personal reflections on a spiritual journey through the Catholic Church.
I hold an undergraduate degree in Economics from Princeton University and a master’s degree in Public and Private Management from Yale University.
I am married and the father of one child. Though raised a Methodist in the Bible Belt and surrounded with evangelicalism as a youth, I converted to the Catholic Church prior to my marriage in 1985.
Touched deeply by the life of St. Thérèse of Lisieux and imbued with a filial love for Mary, I set out on a life-long spiritual journey to "seek first" Christ's Kingdom with Thérèse as my guide.
Eventually led to confront my innermost being on that lonely, mystical hill of Calvary; I discovered through Mary's maternal guidance and Thérèse's sisterly care that Jesus had called another mighty saint to walk with me and to protect me through that dark and awful night of self-confrontation that leads us in Christ to true freedom. That saint, a spiritual sister to Thérèse, was Joan of Arc.
~ Walter Emerson
[1] 1Peter 2:9 (Douay-Rheims)
Royaume France is the Kingdom Blessed of St. Joan and St. Thérèse; its spirituality is the combined hearts of St. Joan of Arc and St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Our community consists of those devoted to these two saintly sisters and their royal French hearts. We seek Our Lady's mystical Kingdom of Catholic and Royal France with them and in union with St. Mary Magdalene as our spiritual foundress. May the Father’s Kingdom come, and his will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. May the reign of the Immaculate Heart of Mary be quickened through this devotion.
Royaume France attempts to model the journey with St. Joan and St. Thérèse from its spiritual beginnings to its philosophical foundations. We prefer not to promote our work aggressively beyond making others aware of its existence. We work solely on a gather or disperse basis.
Our vision for Royaume France is to remain an informal network of contemplatives devoted to the combined hearts of St. Joan and St. Thérèse and to the form of Catholic and Royal France in the center of the Immaculate Heart of Mary where Jesus Christ reigns in all his glory. There is no formal organization or movement; however, we constitute a Jehannian and Thérèsian inspired community living the prayer of the Our Father and praying especially for Our Lady's Catholic and Royal France to come "on earth as it is in Heaven." We carry with us the evangelical boldness of St. Joan powered by the courageous Carmelite spirituality of St. Thérèse.
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I appreciate that you are here! May St. Joan, St. Thérèse, and St. Mary Magdalene pray for you always!