Thursday, January 23, 2014

Phillips Brooks: Bishop, Preacher, Author

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Today the Episcopal Church celebrates and honors the life and ministry of Phillips Brooks.  He was born in 1835 in Boston and died on this day in 1893 while serving as the Bishop of Massachusetts.  Brooks was born to William and Mary Brooks. Four of their six sons became Episcopal clergymen. 

 

Brooks went to Harvard and then he studied for the priesthood at Virginia Theological Seminary. After ten years of ministry at two churches in Philadelphia, he returned to Boston in 1869 and was rector of Trinity Church there until 1891. He was then elected Bishop of Massachusetts, and died two years later.

 

During the American Civil War, Brooks was an opponent of slavery.  At the death of Abraham Lincoln, Brooks preached a sermon that was an eloquent expression of the President’s character.  He said, in part: “It is the great boon of characters like Abraham Lincoln that they reunite what God has joined together and man has put asunder.”

 

Phillips Brooks is best known today as the author of “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

 

Let us pray:  O everlasting God, who 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.

REMINDERS

Please pray for everyone on our Prayer List, but especially for Pat and Karen.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

The Rev. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

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