Priest and poet ... this double vocation made Frederick William Faber (1814-1863), an English Calvinist theologian who converted to Catholicism, the author of magnificent spiritual reflections. As a poet, he was a friend of Wordsworth, and as a convert from Anglicanism to Catholicism he was inspired by St. John Henry Newman.
In his spiritual writings on kindness, he praised charitable words and demonstrated their power: "In truth, there is hardly a power on earth equal to them. It seems as if they could almost do what in reality God alone can do—namely, soften the hard and angry hearts of men.”
An eloquent preacher, Faber founded a religious community called St. Wilfrids in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, which later merged with the Oratory congregation led by St. John Henry Newman. Newman decided to establish a second Oratory in London, known as the London Oratory, of which Fr. Faber remained superior until his death.
While Fr. Faber devoted much of his work to writing the lives of Oratorian saints, he also left this beautiful text on kind words:
