Poem: "The Eternal Years" - Fr. Frederick William Faber

[p.falk]

I was reading the background on "The Dream of Gerontius" by Cardinal Newman, and in that background the poem "The Eternal Years" was referenced. I had never heard of Fr. Frederick William Faber before, but fitting that this was mentioned in "The Dream of Gerontius" given both Newman and Faber (as I'm learning now) are notable converts from Anglicanism to Catholicism. Reading up on Fr. Faber I see he was a hymn writer with "Faith of Our Fathers" being the most renown. I listened to it, it sounds familiar... but I'd be shocked if I had ever heard it at my church. Maybe the church of my youth.

The poem, "The Eternal Years" is pretty moving.



How shalt thou bear the Cross that now
So dread a weight appears?
Keep quietly to God, and think
Upon the Eternal Years.




Austerity is little help,
Although it somewhat cheers;
Thine oil of gladness is the thought
Of the Eternal Years.


Set hours and written rule are good,
Long prayer can lay our fears:
But it is better calm for thee
To count the Eternal Years.


Rites are as balm unto the eyes,
God's word unto the ears:
But He will have thee rather brood
Upon the Eternal Years.


Full many things are good for souls
In proper times and spheres;
Thy present good is in the thought
Of the Eternal Years.


Thy self-upbraiding is a snare,
Though meekness it appears;
More humbling is it far for thee
To face the Eternal Years.


Brave quiet is the thing for thee,
Chiding thy scrupulous fears;
Learn to be real, from the thought
Of the Eternal Years.


Bear gently, suffer like a child,
Nor be ashamed of tears;
Kiss the sweet Cross, and in thy heart
Sing of the Eternal Years.


Thy Cross is quite enough for thee,
Though little it appears;
For there is hid in it the weight
Of the Eternal Years.


And knowst thou not how bitterness
An ailing spirit cheers?
Thy medicine is the strengthening thought
Of the Eternal Years.


One Cross can sanctify a soul;
Late saints and ancient seers
Were what they were, because they mused
Upon the Eternal Years.


Pass not from flower to pretty flower;
Time flies, and judgment nears;
Go! make thy honey from the thought
Of the Eternal Years.


Death will have rainbows round it, seen
Through calm contrition's tears,
If tranquil hope but trims her lamp
At the Eternal Years.


Keep unconstrain'dly in this thought,
Thy loves, hopes, smiles, and tears;
Such prison-house thine heart will make
Free of the Eternal Years.


A single practice long sustained
A soul to God endears:
This must be thine—to weigh the thought
Of the Eternal Years.


He practises all virtue well,
Who his own Cross reveres,
And lives in the familiar thought
Of the Eternal Years.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

Father Faber wrote a great many hymns. Many of them are now forgotten, but a few are still widely sung. There's a list here: https://hymnary.org/person/Faber_Frederick

Sadly, Fr. Faber and St. John Henry Newman simply could not get along with each other. It's a case of two holy men (one definitely so, since he's canonized) whose personalities were so widely different that they couldn't understand each other at all.

[Tired]

wow, what a list! And if I counted right, authored songs in 16 or so languages?

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

English only; the rest are translations.

[Tired]

hmmm, the website clearly lists (Author) next to most and (Translator) next to some.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

They're wrong. Fr. Faber knew Latin and probably Italian, but not all those other languages.