St Therese, Predestination and Love – Oct 01 – Homily – Fr Terrance
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Fr Terrance gives the homily at Bloomington, IN, on Oct 01, 2025, on St. Therese's thoughts on predestination and love, highlighting God's varied grace and His love for diversity in His heavenly garden.
St. Therese, in her autobiography, reflects on predestination as described in Ephesians 1:5, where God predestines us in love. She discusses how theologians teach that God predestined the elect from eternity (CCC 600). She wonders why God gives different graces, referencing the extraordinary favors on St. Paul and St. Augustine. She uses the analogy of a garden to explain divine variety, with souls like flowers, each with its role (1 John 4:16). God's love, she writes, humbles itself to reach even the simplest souls, like the poor savage or a child (CCC 1257), and she compares this to the sun shining on all creation, as in Genesis 3:21 where God clothes Adam and Eve, showing His humility. This humility encourages us to let God's love shine through us, as He did through St. Therese, the youngest doctor of the Church.
Ephesians 1: 5 - NAB - Predestined in love - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ephesians/1?5
1 John 4: 16 - NAB - God is love - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1john/4?16
Genesis 3: 21 - NAB - God clothes Adam and Eve - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/3?21
Catechism of the Catholic Church #600 - Predestination - Text: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p122a4p2.htm#600
Wikipedia - St. Therese of Lisieux - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9r%C3%A8se_of_Lisieux
Catholic Answers - Is Everything Predestined? - https://www.catholic.com/audio/tjap/is-everything-predestined
Ave Maria!
Mass: St. Therese of the Child Jesus - Feast - http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=105
Readings: - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/1001-memorial-therese-child-jesus.cfm
1st: isa 66:10-14
Resp: psa 131:1-3
Gsp: mat 18:1-4
More on the Readings: https://airmaria.com/r?m=1168
Also on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/178eTuFKQv/
and YouTube: https://youtu.be/-A9Zly_msiY
