#william temple

[cobotis]

An authentically empowered person is humble... This does not mean the false humility of one who stoops to be with those who are below him or her... It is the inclusiveness of one who responds to the beauty of each soul... It is the harmlessness of one who treasures, honors, and reveres life in all its forms...

~ Gary Zukav

[walkswithmyfather]

[Source: Nicky Gumbel (developer of the Alpha Course.) Excerpt from bibleinoneyear.org]

“I recently rediscovered one of my prayer diaries in which I recorded some of my early experiences of answered prayer. On 26 September 1976, I wrote about a prayer for my mother: ‘Prayed for the Lord to heal her insomnia.’ (I did not tell her I was praying for her.) Exactly three months later, on 26 December 1976, I wrote that my mother ‘says she has slept better in the last few weeks than for four years and it is no longer a problem’. Of course, it is not possible to prove Christianity on the basis of answers to prayer, because cynics can always explain them away as coincidence. But as former Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple said, ‘When I pray coincidences happen, when I don’t they don’t.’ The cumulative effect of answered prayer is to reinforce our faith in God.” —Nicky Gumbel

[soufleur]

As coincidências são bem mais frequentes quando oramos.

William Temple

[thevirtuousgirl]

[nellygwyn]

Dorothy Osborne and her sweetheart, Sir. William Temple are one of the most famous couples of the late 17th century on account of their extensive correspondence sent during their courtship. Only Dorothy’s love letters to William survive but they reveal a woman of wit, beauty and intelligence, completely captivated by a budding young diplomat. They would remain together and deeply in love for the rest of Dorothy’s life. Through troubled times and personal tragedies, the marriage lasted and such an example is rare in early modern England.

The pair first met when they were 20 and 21 years of age, in 1646 and were instantly attracted to each other. They began to send each other love letters and with every word, they fell more and more in love. Dorothy’s father opposed the match for various financial reasons; William’s father agreed. Dorothy had many suitors thrust on her but she held her resolve. She would only marry her dear William. When Dorothy and William’s fathers died around the same time, they were able to convince their remaining family members that they should be able to marry. After almost 10 years of heartfelt courtship conducted mainly through letters, they were finally allowed to be together. They were married on Christmas Day, 1654.

Dorothy was the mastermind behind her husband’s successful diplomatic and court career. He worked on behalf of the newly restored King, Charles II, often acting as his ambassador in the Netherlands, and it was Dorothy who remained steadfastly at his side and was his partner in all things. They were so inseparable that in 1671, King Charles used Dorothy, not William,  to provoke the Third Anglo-Dutch Warby letting her sail through the Dutch fleet on the royal yacht Merlin, demanding to be saluted with white smoke.

Although they remained deeply in love, family life was not so blissful. All but two of their nine children died in infancy. Their daughter lived until she was 14 after succumbing to smallpox, and their beloved eldest son drowned himself in the Thames in his early twenties. He left behind two children and a wife who became Dorothy and William’s solace in these trying times. Dorothy died at home in 1695. William would follow her four years later. They are buried together in Westminster Abbey.

Dorothy’s letters to William, sent during their courtship, are progressive, witty and illuminating on 17th century society. She asks him to “Read my heart” in her words. Dorothy tells William her deepest thoughts and fears, shares gossip, despairs at the country’s political state and kisses him through the paper. She teases him with reference to how much she LOVES being in bed, tells him what she thinks makes the perfect husband, and longs for both of them to be free. She is sad and happy and passionate all at once. They quarrel too, as all couples do, but it is usually resolved by the next letter. In short, the letters show us a young woman passionately in love with a man she cannot have. In one particularly witty and almost scarily modern letter, Dorothy frets over William’s tendency to get ill easily:

Would any one in the world, but you, make such haste for a new cold before the old had left him; in a year, too, when mere colds kill as many as a plague used to do? Well, seriously, either resolve to have more care of yourself, or I renounce my friendship. Well, sir, good night again, for I am in a dream like state already.

[cobotis]

Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people... nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts... It means freedom from thinking about yourself at all...

William Temple

[martyschoenleber]

Thoughts on Worship

“For worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose—and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable.” —William Temple, Readings in…

View On WordPress

[focr]

Worship:

For to worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, and to devote the will to the purpose of God.

~ William Temple