Mary Frances Martin was born at Alençon of parents most pious and endowed with a comfortable amount of the goods of this world. At the age of fifteen she entered the Carmel of Lisieux, living there in holiness and humility. Her whole ambition was to love God perfectly and to conquer souls for Jesus. She died in the odor of sanctity, promising to “spend her heaven in doing good upon earth” (1873-1897). His Holiness Pope Pius XI declared her Blessed on April 29, 1923, and canonized her on March 17, 1925.
Today is the feast of St. Therese both on the traditional roman calendar which we follow at home and on the Byzantine calendar, which is the rite that we attend here. So at the Divine Liturgy today Maria (and Lisa and I) had the privilege of being blest with oil, kissing a first class relic of St. Therese and venerating St. Therese's icon on her middle-name day. It was extraordinary.
Today I turned in my first written work of the semester. It's rather embarrassing, but for the sake of giving you all a window into my life as a student here, I'll be making my essays available online. The assigned topic for this paper was, "Which is greater in the Book of Isaiah: God's love or the people's sins? Did God divorce His people?" My answer: "The Triumph of the Love of God over the Sin of His People in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah." I would be very interested if you have any criticisms or other comments.
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4 comments:
I tried to read this paper but I only saw one page posted. Was that the entire paper?
Yeah, that's it. The assignment was only a three page essay, so it is quite short.
John, Well-stated, I must say...who was your elementary school teacher?
All kidding aside, I believe you are precisely correct in your commentary. Our sin, outside of the atonement of Christ, really does separate us from God, as in divorce...He, in His infinite mercy, chooses to love and restore us to the relationship, as He did with His people in Isaiah. Can the truth be stated in any other way except that "God's love triumphs over sin?" He has given the means to appropriate that love and mercy, through Christ's sacrifice on the cross, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the sacraments, holy Mother Church, etc...in other words through all the avenues of grace.
Thank you. I for one will give your teaching an A+
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