Today's match-up features two saintly souls with devilish potential for misspellings. Calling Phillips Brooks "Philip" is like calling Johns Hopkins "John" while spelling Catherine's home of Siena with two "n's" rather than one is like spelling Saint Monnica with one "n" rather than two. Wait, what? Anyway, there's a lot of spelling on the line in today's match-up.
Yesterday, besides hearing Lent Madness featured on NPR, Lydia sent John of the Cross to Dark Night of the Soul redux 58% to 42%. It was a bad day for snails but something tells us we'll be hearing more about escargot during the Saintly Kitsch Round when Lydia faces Basil the Great.
Phillips Brooks
A dozen years ago Ellen Wilbur, a short story writer and member of Trinity Church, Copley Square in Boston, sought out Phillips Brooks’ sermons. A search yielded fragile, incomplete copies, some of which fell apart in her hands.
“I’d never read a book of sermons in my life, and now wanted to read nothing but Phillips Brooks. There was something wondrous about the loving voice with which he spoke and the utter faith which underlay and glorified all of his preaching,” Wilbur wrote in the preface to a collection of sermons she edited in 2003 titled The Consolations of God.
Peter Gomes, the late professor at Harvard Divinity School, wrote in the book’s foreword, “Even in print, and at the remove of a century, Brooks sounds well, which is no small thing when few sermons last beyond lunchtime.”
In one sermon Brooks inspired people to serve God whatever their station in life, not least, perhaps, his wealthy Back Bay parishioners.
Strike God's iron on the anvil, see God's goods across the counter, put God's wealth in circulation, teach God's children in the school— so shall the dust of your labor build itself into a little sanctuary where you and God may dwell together.
If you are not spiritually minded, do not wait for mysterious light and vision. Go and give up your dearest sin. Go and do what is right. Go and put yourself thoroughly into the power of the holiness of duty.
All the world is an utterance of the Almighty.
Brooks seemed not to worry about the scholarly detractors who dismissed him as an intellectual lightweight. Gomes wrote, “Brooks consistently practiced biblical preaching...he understood that part of his task was to open the treasures of the Scriptures to his people; and it was his pastoral concern for the human condition and its relationship to the eternal truths of the Christian gospel that made him a biblical preacher and not merely an orator on religious themes.”
In lectures at Yale, Brooks was famous for positing that preaching is “truth through personality.” He said, “the personality of the teacher invad[ing] the personality of the scholar, bringing the personal Christ to the personal human nature.”
Brooks was a rare breed of priest: a standing-room-only preacher and a deeply caring pastor, something people of all faiths and classes recognized. In 1893, after serving only 15 months as bishop, Brooks died, and the city of Boston grieved. M.C. Ayers, editor of the Boston Daily Advertiser, wrote after his funeral, “It was the people who were quickest to discern the incomparable worth of Phillips Brooks. They knew him, flocked to him, loved and trusted him.”
As usual, it comes down to love. Brooks knew he was entirely beloved of God and thus free to bestow upon his people lavish attention and words to stir their hearts to serve God.
Brooks once said, “Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully.”
-- Heidi Shott
Catherine of Siena
Catherine of Siena, the 14th century mystic, politician, carer for the poor, and all-around saintly all-star, was an overachiever on several fronts.
She was only seven when she had her first vision of Christ, but her visions kicked into high gear when she was in her mid twenties. She received the stigmata when the crucifix she was praying in front of exploded with five red beams of light, which pierced her hand, feet and heart. That same year, she had a vision in which Jesus appeared, and seemed to exchange her beating heart for his. When she received the Eucharist, she saw the bread become the Child Jesus floating down from heaven to earth to rest in the priest's hands. Once, when she gave the usual response to receiving the host ("Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof"), she heard a voice respond, "But I am worthy to enter you." As she received the bread, she said later that her soul merged with God so that "the soul is in God and God in the soul, just as the fish is in the sea and the sea in the fish."
But all this vision-having did not make her popular with the local clergy of her time, most of whom found her befuddling, even frustrating. One Franciscan, Fr. Lazzarino, was very bothered by her, and sought a meeting to explain why she was Doing Faith Wrong. This did not go well for him, since meeting Catherine in person, and asking for her prayers, caused an acute attack of guilt that evening. He realized that he had not been following the Franciscan path as he had vowed as a youth, and he raced back to Catherine the next morning to apologize, and to give away all he owned to the poor.
As Catherine's reputation as a great persuader spread, she was sought out by popes and politicians as well -- and not just for guilt trips. She was a sought-after counsel to two popes, including Urban VI. She and Urban had such a close relationship that she would chide him frequently to curb his arrogance, and he insisted that she come to Rome to help him lead the Vatican.
After her death at age 33 in Rome, the people of Siena wanted to bring her body back home to be honored. One man from Siena tried to bring back just her head, but was stopped at the Roman gates by soldiers. He prayed to St. Catherine, and miraculously, when the bag was inspected, it had transformed into rose petals. To this day, Catherine’s head (and thumb) reside in Siena, and her body resides in Rome.
Vote!
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108 comments on “Phillips Brooks vs. Catherine of Siena”
I love Catherine, but since I serve Phillips Brooks' field education parish (All Saints-Sharon Chapel in Alexandria, Virginia) I am voting for him today. The story goes that after preaching his first sermon
Sorry, don't know why it went prematurely--When Phillips Brooks was a seminarian here, he preached his first sermon, but thought it went so badly that he jumped out the window by the pulpit and hastened back to seminary. To this day there is a door right by the pulpit, known as Phillips Brooks' door. There's a portrait of him in the narthex and a framed letter he wrote to us once…But what a preacher!
Brooks !
This was a tough one. However, since I went to VTS, I had to go with an alum. Problem is that while VTS is VERY proud of the connection of Brooks to the Holy Hill, he apparently had a very low opinion of the place. He was glad to graduate and escape. I suspect he was probably better educated and brighter than some of his professors. We forget sometimes that up until modern accreditation, many of the VTS faculty did not hold earned doctorates. They were drawn from the parish priesthood based on their assumed knowledge (wide reading) in particular areas. Phillips Brooks was a Harvard graduate and had attended a top notch Latin Academy in preparation for Harvard. His knowledge of classical languages may have exceeded that of his teachers at THE SEMINARY. Still, he went to VTS and that counts for everything.
I lit a candle at the sarcophagus of St. Catherine at Rome's Santa Maria sopra Minerva, but despite that memory I voted for Brooks, having visited"his" churches in Boston and Philadelphia. A double connection day for me.
I just want to comment on what pleasure I have had reading today's participant comments. Thank you all.
I totally agree!!
My mystics are taking a consistent beating this year, and I can only sigh and remember that it is part of the dharma (if you'll pardon my cross-religious lingo there) of the mystic to be misunderstood. Still, Catherine is a Doctor of the Church and will have my doomed vote. I hope that in the great hereafter I'll be allowed to hang out in the green room with my bracket.
Catherine must have been an amazing woman to lecture a pope and then be asked to be his counsel. But, in doing some simple research on Phillips Brooks I found a connection to the man in his sayings and in his love for young people. His sense of playfulness would have made him love Lent Madness. Anyone who says,"Charity begins at home, but it shouldn't stay there." has a wit to make us laugh at ourselves and get moving! Phillips the large has my vote.
Anyone else ever visited the Basilica in Siena? The display of the relics is hardly edifying. In fact, it had the opposite effect on me. Of course that is not her fault; but I voted for Phillips anyway. In my humble opinion, excellent preaching wins over personal ecstasy. But what do I know?
Gotta go with Brooks. I remember my dad telling me that he baptized my granddaddy.
I hope it's not too late to vote. I've been away from home all day for a medical appointment and a meeting of the cancer support group I co-lead at the hospital where I worked. We just got through with dinner and dishwashing.
I had to vote for Phillips Brooks today because of his emphasis on living and acting out of love. O Little Town of Bethlehem is a plus.
Betsy....I just listened to "o little town of Bethlehem" , thank you so much
For posting this !
Betsey, thank you so much for posting this
In the Lutheran Church all of us are Saints, and sinners. The Liturgical Calendar lists various people who have contributed to the church in various ways. Bach, along with Handel, and Heinrich Schütz are recognized for their contributions to music on July 28th. There are hymnwriters, like Isaac Watts or Paul Gerhardt (the most prolific Lutheran hymnwriter, and hymn tranlators, like Catherine Winkworth and John Mason Neale, who are recognized. Also the Wesley brothers, Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, John Calvin, and even Katharina von Bora Luther (Martin's wife) are recognized as Renewers of the Church for their part in the Reformation. And there are many, many others. These people are not "canonized" -- that is a Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox declaration. But many of those included, but not all, in Lent Madness are recognized by the Lutheran Church.
Have you ever been in a "thin place"? Such as the Litchfield Cathedral where the presence of God greets you as you walk in...as if God Himself is ready to listen to your prayer...as if generations of prayers permeate the walls and the space between the walls... Well, if you can decifer those fragments, good for you! Then I'd like to suggest that Catherine of Siena lived in a "thin place"; that her soul was usually close to God; and that her visions resulted from her openess to God. Some have said perhaps she was mentally ill. If that were the case, I doubt popes would seek her advice, nor would many people seek her spiritual counsel.
Both our saintly candidates of the day were much sought after in their eras.
I should like to have listened to each of them, but, alas!, time flies. They were both gone before I, or any of us, arrived.
So. I wrote PB on my bracket, but I vote for C of S for her closeness with God, and her persuasive, practical advice and quotes above attributed to her.
I feel a little disloyal to my sister Catherine, but frankly, once again I come down on her being, well, weird, tho I'm glad a couple of the popes had the counsel of a young person. The reality is that anyone whose sermons are worth reading even today (& I've read several just for fun--and a homiletics course I was taking) & he really got it about regular people & how to reach them. I still have to go with Phillips.
Catherine of Siena today. At a time when women's voices were hard to hear, perhaps God gave them visions to give them access to power that they would not otherwise have. A Doctor of the Church, advisor to popes and not above digging graves to bury the dead during a plague, plus some wonderful words left behind. (I have' If you are what you should be you will set the world on fire' above my desk.)
Sorry Fiona, can't resist this one:
......"I don't want to set the world onnn fiiirrre".......
I love the Ink Spots 🙂
If St. Catherine of Siena, one of the greatest saints of all time can't win, then something is drastically wrong with Lent Madness....I have lost Faith in it!