[LIF] I'm Done!!!!!

When I landed home earlier today it was all I could do not to crash! I wrote 2.5 hours straight on my last exam. I don't recall ever having to write into the third hour before. I filled 2.5 exam books and boy was that exhausting. What a great exam though, the last question was a choice between an essay on Mary or an essay on the Pope. Both questions were nice an juicy, but how could I pass up writing about Mary? I took the ecumenical hang up road and began exploring the Vatican II perspective of Mary. Some of it I recoil at, especially when it talks in terms of predestination of Mary, but some of it is really good for those of us in traditions that usually laugh at Mariology. I ran into Mary in two courses this semester and I must say I have a new appreciation for Mary's role in the Church. I do have to agree with the East though that the two infallible papal declarations are completely unnecessary. Actually these are only two infallible declaration ever made, don't buy the creeping infallability crap spread to slander Catholics. The immaculate conception declaration is that Mary was immaculately conceived which is based on a flawed fall theology and the assumption of Mary dogma is just aptly named. But what we say about Mary is usually to support what we say about Christ, so you can forgive the sometimes zealous Mariologizings of Catholics. I think that Mary should be discussed amongst protestants, but then again I'm for a reintegration of hagiography as a means of Christian encouragement. Will it happen, likely not anytime soon. Does it matter, not really in terms of eternal things. But it is a hard point ecumenically and there could be a lot more understanding from our side on what the Catholics are actually teaching and promoting (and even not promoting, they did decide against making co-redemptrix an official title of Mary).

I am glad to be done exams, now to catch up on all the jobs I've neglected since paper crunch. Tomorrow I clean my office, prepare worship for a sister church that has invited me to lead, prepare the livingroom for our yearly tree trimming and if I have time, clean the bathrooms. Got my work cut out for me.