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Frederick William Faber
Frederick William Faber (June 28, 1814 – September 26, 1863) was an English preacher, hymn writer, and theologian whose ministry transitioned from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, leaving a mark on 19th-century devotional life. Born in Calverley, Yorkshire, England, to Frederick Faber, a curate and secretary to the Bishop of Durham, and Elizabeth Ann Broadbelt, he was the eldest of five children in an evangelical Anglican family. Educated at Bishop Auckland Grammar School, Harrow School (1827–1832), and Balliol and University Colleges, Oxford (B.A. 1836, M.A. 1839), he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry in 1836, embracing Tractarianism under John Henry Newman’s influence. Faber’s preaching career began with ordination as an Anglican deacon in 1837 and priest in 1839, serving as rector of Elton, Huntingdonshire (1843–1845), where his eloquent sermons drew hearers. Converted to Catholicism in November 1845 after Newman’s example, he joined the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in 1848, founding its London branch in 1849, where he preached on divine love and Marian devotion until illness struck. Author of hymns like “Faith of Our Fathers” and books such as All for Jesus (1853) and The Foot of the Cross (1857), his sermons reached beyond the pulpit through print. Never married, he lived celibately as a priest and died at age 49 in London, England, from Bright’s disease.
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Frederick William Faber emphasizes the importance of kind listening and speaking, highlighting how attentive and compassionate listening can lead to gracious and thoughtful speaking. He warns against various negative listening behaviors such as being distracted, interrupting, or making conversations about oneself, stressing the need for gentle and considerate listening as a form of interior mortification. Faber connects kind listening to kind speaking, suggesting that those in positions of authority must practice both to avoid offending God and falling into secret sins.
Kind Listeners
"To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose them that are appointed to death" (Ps. 102:20). There is also a grace of kind listening, as well as a grace of kind speaking. Some men listen with an abstracted air, which shows that their thoughts are elsewhere. Or they seem to listen, but by wide answers and irrelevant questions show that they have been occupied with their own thoughts, as being more interesting, at least in their own estimation, than what you have been saying. Some listen with a kind of impor-tunate ferocity which makes you feel that you are being put upon your trial, and that your auditor expects beforehand that you are going to tell him a be, or to be inaccurate, or to say something which he will disapprove, and that you must mind your expressions. Some interrupt, and will not hear you to the end. Some hear you to the end, and then forthwith begin to talk to you about a similar experience which has befallen themselves, making your case only an illustration of their own. Some, meaning to be kind, listen with such a determined, lively, violent attention, that you are at once made uncomfortable, and the charm of conversation is at an end. Many persons, whose manners will stand the test of speaking, break down under the trial of listening. But all these things should be brought under the sweet influences of religion. Kind listening is often an act of the most delicate interior mortification, and is a great assistance towards kind speaking. Those who govern others must take care to be kind listeners, or else they will soon offend God, and fall into secret sins.
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Frederick William Faber (June 28, 1814 – September 26, 1863) was an English preacher, hymn writer, and theologian whose ministry transitioned from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, leaving a mark on 19th-century devotional life. Born in Calverley, Yorkshire, England, to Frederick Faber, a curate and secretary to the Bishop of Durham, and Elizabeth Ann Broadbelt, he was the eldest of five children in an evangelical Anglican family. Educated at Bishop Auckland Grammar School, Harrow School (1827–1832), and Balliol and University Colleges, Oxford (B.A. 1836, M.A. 1839), he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry in 1836, embracing Tractarianism under John Henry Newman’s influence. Faber’s preaching career began with ordination as an Anglican deacon in 1837 and priest in 1839, serving as rector of Elton, Huntingdonshire (1843–1845), where his eloquent sermons drew hearers. Converted to Catholicism in November 1845 after Newman’s example, he joined the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in 1848, founding its London branch in 1849, where he preached on divine love and Marian devotion until illness struck. Author of hymns like “Faith of Our Fathers” and books such as All for Jesus (1853) and The Foot of the Cross (1857), his sermons reached beyond the pulpit through print. Never married, he lived celibately as a priest and died at age 49 in London, England, from Bright’s disease.