The Third Miracle

Term Paper Title	The Third Miracle
# of Words	578
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	2.31

the Third Miracle

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing

is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

Albert Einstein

Director Agnieszka Holland has produced a thoughtful and thought-provoking
film in The Third Miracle. It centers on the complicated character, Father Frank
Moore. This troubled priest recently found by Bishop Cahill�s secretary hiding
in a downtown soup kitchen is also the diocesan postulator for any alleged
supernatural activity in the region. He is most known for earlier exposing what
many considered a saint, as a sexually tortured man who eventually committed
suicide. This incident branded him the �miracle killer�. In the beginning,
even he had begun to believe in the intercession of this legendary Fr. Falcone.
Discovering the truth left him with a scarred psyche filled with regret from
years of shooting holes in people's beliefs.

While in a crisis of faith he is asked by his prelate to investigate a new
case -- Helen O�Regan and a miracle at St. Stanislaus parish in a dilapidated
urban area. The miracle was a girl named Maria, cured of terminal Lupus after
praying for the intercession of the recently deceased O�Regan. Included with
the physical healing was a yearly manifestation where a favorite statue of Helen�s
would shed tears of blood. The blood matched Helen�s type. Maria went on to
become a prostitute and drug addict leading her mother to claim �God wasted a
miracle�. Additionally, Helen�s daughter Roxane struggled with the
investigation since she had bitterness toward her mother for leaving her at age
16 by moving into the parish rectory. For her religion was �pathetic� and
her bitterness prevented her from seeing how God could work miracles through a
flawed human being like her mother. The added dimension of a romantic
relationship between her and Fr...

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