Frederick William Faber

[BenL]

Many of you may know him as the author of the words to two widely recognized hyms: Faith of Our Fathers and There's a Wideness in God's Mercy. He lived from 1814 to 1863. He grew up Calvinist but later followed John Henry Newman into the Roman Catholic Church.

Today at Sunday service three teenage girls sang a trio, the words of which were drawn from Faber's poem "There's a wideness ..." Usually we only sing three verses of that hymn, and I had never heard these words before. They struck me with their clarity and simplicity. Here they are:

But we make His love too narrow
By false limits of our own;
And we magnify His strictness
With a zeal He will not own.

This says volumes to me about people who would box in God's all-inclusive love.

You can read the whole poem and see a picture of Faber at There's a wideness in God's Mercy (http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/t/h/e/therwide.htm).

[FatherAlbert]

Dear BenL,

Thanks for the beautiful verse from Faber! Too often we miss a lot when we don't read/sing all the verses of a song or poem. I'm working on the "box" thing. It's all about "thinking outside the box" so that we can find the way out into the Light. I hope to finish in a couple of days and begin a new thread for feedback and discussion. It is something I've spent much time with: reflecting, studying, meditating, visualizing, etc. to try to help people who are stuck to find the power and knowledge to escape the box. It is a very freeing, spiritual, transcendental experience, and I believe that most anyone can get there with practice and a true desire to become "inclusive" in all parts of their lives.

Love and blessings in Christ and Benedict,
Albert

P.S. My wife and I will be spending August, September, and October in MA not too far from Boston. I, too, am involved in spiritual reading facilitation, as well as centering prayer and "lectio divina" in my local Episcopal church here in Naples.