dual personalities

Tag: Phillips Brooks

January 23, 2018

A prayer for today

by chuckofish

O God:

Give me strength to live another day;
Let me not turn coward before its difficulties
or prove recreant to its duties;

Let me not lose faith in other people;
Keep me sweet and sound of heart, in spite of
ingratitude, treachery, or meanness;
Preserve me from minding little stings or
giving them;

Help me to keep my heart clean, and to live so
honestly and fearlessly that no outward failure
can dishearten me or take away the joy of
conscious integrity;

Open wide the eyes of my soul that I may see
good in all things;

Grant me this day some new vision of thy truth;
Inspire me with the spirit of joy and gladness;

And make me the cup of strength to suffering
souls; in the name of the strong Deliverer,
our only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

–Phillips Brooks

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The Episcopal Church remembers Phillips Brooks, priest and bishop, annually on January 23, the anniversary of his death. He is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery–the first “garden cemetery” in America–in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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Edwin Booth is buried there too, as is Louis Agassiz, geologist, zoologist; Mary Baker Eddy, “discoverer of the principles of Christian Science”; Fannie Farmer, who wrote the cook­book; Isabella Stewart Gardner, whose home is a museum now; Oliver Wendell Holmes, essayist; Winslow Homer, painter, Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the words to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow…and many more.

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Boston is not high on my places to visit, but who knows? I would like to take a look at this cemetery.

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January 22, 2016

So God imparts to human hearts

by chuckofish

Phillips Brooks (December 13, 1835 – January 23, 1893) was an American clergyman and author, who briefly served as Bishop of Massachusetts in the Episcopal Church during the early 1890s. In the Episcopal liturgical calendar he is remembered on January 23.

Phillips Brooks memorial by Augustus Saint Gaudens, Trinity CHurch, Boston

Phillips Brooks memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Trinity Church, Boston

Under his inspiration, architect Henry Hobson Richardson, muralist John La Farge, and stained glass artists William Morris and Edward Burne Jones created an architectural masterpiece in Trinity Church, Boston.

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A favorite building of mine, this picture of the beloved church in Copley Square hangs in my flyover university office.

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Brooks died in 1893, after an episcopate of only 15 months. His death was a major event in the history of Boston. One observer reported: “They buried him like a king. Harvard students carried his body on their shoulders. All barriers of denomination were down. Roman Catholics and Unitarians felt that a great man had fallen in Israel.”

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Remembered today mostly as the man who wrote “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” he must have been quite the guy.

Collect of the Day: Phillips Brooks, Bishop of Massachusetts, 1893

O everlasting God, you revealed truth to your servant Phillips Brooks, and so formed and molded his mind and heart that he was able to mediate that truth with grace and power: Grant, we pray, that all those whom you call to preach the Gospel may steep themselves in your Word, and conform their lives to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Have a good weekend!

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