Phillips Brooks, was born in 1835, in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard and the Episcopal Theological Seminary in 1859. He then began a ministry that lasted nearly 35 years. Early in his ministry, Brooks made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, spending the Christmas season in Bethlehem. The experience of worshipping in the Church of the Nativity, made a great impression on Brooks. In 1868, several years after his trip, Brooks was looking for a Christmas song for the Children’s choir to sing in a Christmas program. Not finding one, he wrote down the words to this great Christmas carol. He gave the text to his organist, Lewis H. Redner. Redner struggled for some time to come up with the right melody for this carol. On the evening before the program was to occur, Redner says that he woke during the night and rushed to write down the music. He always said that the music was a gift from heaven. “O ...