Mary M. Solberg, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Religion

Mary Solberg

"This Is My Song" (Finlandia)

Text by Lloyd Stone

This is my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine;
But other lands have sunlight too, and clover,
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.

 

My heroes

Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962) was an American human rights activist, diplomat and as the wife of President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt, the longest serving First Lady of the United States from 1933-1945.

Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993) was an African-American contralto, to whom the great conductor Arturo Toscanini said, after hearing her sing, "A voice like yours comes along once in a century." When the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow Marian Anderson to sing for an integrated audience in Constitution Hall in Washington, DC, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR. On Easter Sunday, 1939, Anderson sang from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for 75,000 people.

Martin Luther

Martin Luther

Martin Luther (November 10, 1483 – February 18, 1546) a German Augustinian monk, professor of Old Testament, and theologian. When in 1517 he publicly offered for debate 95 theses on the Church's sale of indulgences, what came to be called the "Reformation" began.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (March 21, 1685 – July 28, 1750) was a German organist and composer widely acknowledged as one of the greatest composers in the Western tonal tradition. Acknowledging the beauty and power of his sacred choral music, some call him the "fifth evangelist," after Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Óscar Arnulfo Romero

Óscar Arnulfo Romero

Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (August 15, 1917 – March 24, 1980) was the Archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador, from 1977 to 1980. When the Vatican named him to this post, everyone expected him to support the status quo. Instead, "converted" to the poor by the murder of priests who were working with the poor, Romero became the "voice of the voiceless." Romero was assassinated as he celebrated Mass by a death-squad shooter who was never brought to justice. More than 25 years after his death, Salvadorans still refer to Romero simply as "Monseñor."

 

Other sites of interest