Phillips Brooks, Us, and Mercer UPcoming Events

Dear Friends,

Today, January 23rd, the church remembers and celebrates Phillips Brooks, the 19th century priest, preacher, and bishop of Massachusetts.  His reception of the Word of God and his ability to speak a word worth hearing to the people of the time remain an inspiration to our own day.

Not surprisingly, there are many words of Brooks worth recalling as we go about our own lives of faith and service.  Today I share but one for your consideration:
“The danger facing all of us--let me say it again, for one feels it tremendously--is not that we shall make an absolute failure of life, nor that we shall fall into outright viciousness, nor that we shall be terribly unhappy, nor that we shall feel that life has no meaning at all--not these things. The danger is that we may fail to perceive life's greatest meaning, fall short of its highest good, miss its deepest and most abiding happiness, be unable to render the most needed service, be unconscious of life ablaze with the light of the Presence of God--and be content to have it so--that is the danger. That some day we may wake up and find that always we have been busy with the husks and trappings of life--and have really missed life itself. For life without God, to one who has known the richness and joy of life with Him, is unthinkable, impossible. That is what one prays one's friends may be spared--satisfaction with a life that falls short of the best, that has in it no tingle and thrill which come from a friendship with the Father.” 

To be alive to learning is part of avoiding this greatest danger as Brooks names it.  Please have a look at the Mercer calendar to the left under "Coming Events/Register."  Explore by clicking on a date and then clicking on the event title.  Also make sure to subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter on what's coming up at Mercer.  And call us at 516.248.4800 extension 140 for more information.  

With you in Christ,

John P. McGinty+
Canon for Formation