'Build me a son, O Lord': Tom Brady shares General MacArthur's prayer

By CP Staff, Monday, January 30, 2023

Tom Brady throwing to Jim Harbaugh before 2016 Michigan Wolverines football team's 45-28 victory over 2016 Colorado Buffaloes football team at Michigan Stadium on September 17, 2016. | Wikimedia Commons/Brad Muckenthaler

Is the GOAT becoming more spiritual-minded?

Tom Brady, whose season was cut short after his Tampa Bay Bucs fell to the Dallas Cowboys earlier this month, shared a prayer on his Instagram page along with photos of his son.

The 45-year-old QB posted Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s "Prayer for his Son,” which reads:

“Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

Build me a son whose wishbone will not be where his backbone should be; a son who will know Thee….Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail.

Build me a son whose heart will be clean, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.

Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, ‘I have not lived in vain.’”

In addition to the prayer, he posted a shot of his 15-year-old son, Jack, with his dad at a Bucs practice and another image of him kissing his younger son, Benjamin, 13, as a small boy.

Last month, Brady shared a happy birthday post for his 10-year-old daughter, Vivian.

The post read: “Happy 10th Birthday Vivi! We adore you and your beautiful heart ❤️! You bring so much joy to our life! We love you"

Brady's son, Jack, is from a previous marriage to actress Bridget Moynahan, while he shares Ben and Vivian with his now-former wife, Gisele Bündchen.

After being raised in a Roman Catholic home, the seven-time Super Bowl champ admitted in a 2015 interview that he and Bündchen were “into everything” religiously. His answer then was in response to a question about the presence of a menorah in his house.

Prior to leading the Bucs to a title in Super Bowl LV in 2018, Brady took part in the Super Bowl Gospel Celebration, the only inspirational concert sanctioned by the NFL.