Growth in Holiness

Growth in Holiness, or, The Progress of the Spiritual Life by Frederick William Faber, 494 pages

First published in 1854, Growth in Holiness is a handbook for the spiritual life.  It is the distillation of a lifetime spent personally pursuing holiness, studying those who received holiness, and serving as a spiritual director for others seeking holiness.  The result is a masterful synthesis of a deep reading of Scripture, a keen understanding of human nature, the treasury of the experience of the Church, and a wealth of personal experience, all related in a clear, readable style.

By twenty-first century standards, Fr Faber's teaching is hard and uncompromising - as it was by nineteenth century standards as well.  Particularly disagreeable to many will be his insistence on the value - even the necessity - of voluntary physical mortification.  Others may find strange his continuous assertion of the importance of having a spiritual director.  The first runs counter to the current tendency to view pain as an absolute evil, and the latter seems unthinkable to those for whom submission is identical with slavery.  In both cases, however, Faber is moderate and free from exaggeration, and it is when such a careful commentator departs from the conventional wisdom of the time that he is most valuable.