Phillips Brooks, 1835 - 1893
Born: 13 December 1835, Boston, Massachusetts
Died: 23 January 1893, Boston, Massachusetts
Though both parents came from long-established Puritan families they had joined the Protestant Episcopal Church, four of their six sons would become priests in that denomination. Phillips attended Boston Latin School and graduated from Harvard in 1855. He was unsuccessful as a teacher at Boston Latin so entered the Virginia Theological Seminary at Alexandria, Virginia. He was ordained a deacon in 1859 and priest two years later. He was rector at Church of the Advent until 1862, then served the Church of the Holy Trinity until 1869, both of those parishes in Philadelphia. In 1865 he took an extended European vacation and was moved by a visit to the tidy village of Bethlehem, three years later he wrote a poem about it for a Sunday School program and had it set to music by the church organist. That carol was O Little Town of Bethlehem. He was then called to Trinity Church, Boston which was to embark on building a new building and incorporated several important liturgical changes including bringing the altar out from the back wall and eschewing a formal pulpit. The sanctuary, complete with mosaics commissioned after Brooks' death, has been called "an American Hagia Sophia", high praise. At six feet, four inches (1.95 m) and 300 pounds (136 kg) he was an imposing man but he had the spirit of a poet rather than a scholar and the sanctuary was routinely filled to hear his sermons, delivered from the chancel steps or a simple lectern. He was elected the sixth bishop of Massachusetts in 1891 but died in 1893, fifteen months after his installation. His feast day in the Episcopal calendar is 23 January.
Biography from Wikipedia and Hymns and Carols of Christmas
Additional quotes from Wikiquote. Wikiquote entries are often "sourced" and may include items longer than those included here, particularly for poets, lyricists, and dramatists.
Phillips Brooks quotes:
Quotes found : 21 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 2) 1 2 Next
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- As you emphasize your life, you must localize and define it ... you cannot do everything. permalink
Phillips Brooks - Be such a man, and live such a life, that if every man were such as you, and every life a life like yours, this earth would be God's Paradise. permalink
Phillips Brooks - Bear with the faults of others as you would have them bear with yours. permalink
Phillips Brooks - Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones. permalink
Phillips Brooks - Christianity helps us face the music even when we don't like the tune. permalink
Phillips Brooks - Christmas day is a day of joy and charity. May God make you very rich in both. permalink
Phillips Brooks - Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for power equal to your tasks. permalink
Phillips Brooks - "Going up to Jerusalem", Sermons (1886) - Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully. permalink
Phillips Brooks - For greatness after all, in spite of its name, appears to be not so much a certain size as a certain quality in human lives. It may be present in lives whose range is very small. permalink
Phillips Brooks - Sermons (1879) - Heaven does not make holiness, but holiness makes heaven. permalink
Phillips Brooks - It is while you are patiently toiling at the little tasks of life that the meaning and shape of the great whole of life dawn on you. permalink
Phillips Brooks - Let us beware of losing our enthusiasms. Let us ever glory in something, and strive to retain our admiration for all that would ennoble, and our interest in all that would enrich and beautify our life. permalink
Phillips Brooks - Life comes before literature, as the material always comes before the work. The hills are full of marble before the world blooms with statues. permalink
Phillips Brooks - Literature and Life - Never be afraid to bring the transcendent mysteries of our faith, Christ's life and death and resurrection, to the help of the humblest and commonest of human wants. permalink
Phillips Brooks - No man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle and good, without the world being better for it, without somebody being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness. permalink
Phillips Brooks
Quotes found : 21 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 2) 1 2 Next
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