Now are the days of humblest prayer

Top Media Text Author Text Info Notes Tune Timeline Page Scans Instances

Now are the days of humblest prayer

Author: Frederick W. Faber
Tune: ISAIAH
Published in 17 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, Noteworthy Composer
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 Now are the days of humblest prayer,
When consciences to God lie bare,
And mercy most delights to spare.

Refrain:
Oh hearken when we cry,
Chastise us with Thy fear;
Yet, Father! in the multitude
Of Thy compassions, hear!

2 Now is the season, wisely long,
Of sadder thought and graver song,
When ailing souls grow well and strong. [Refrain]

3 The feast of penance! Oh so bright,
With true conversion’s heav’nly light,
Like sunrise after stormy night! [Refrain]

4 Oh happy time of blessèd tears,
Of surer hopes, of chastening fears,
Undoing all our evil years. [Refrain]

5 We, who have loved the world, must learn,
Upon that world our backs to turn,
And with the love God to burn. [Refrain]

6 Vile creatures of such little worth!
Than we, there can be none on earth
More fallen from their Christian birth. [Refrain]

7 Full long in sin’s dark ways we went,
Yet now our steps are heav’nward bent,
And grace is plentiful in Lent. [Refrain]

8 All glory to redeeming grace,
Disdaining not our evil case,
But showing us our Savior’s face! [Refrain]

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #11678

All representative texts • Compare texts ^ top

Author: Frederick W. Faber

Raised in the Church of England, Frederick W. Faber (b. Calverly, Yorkshire, England, 1814; d. Kensington, London, England, 1863) came from a Huguenot and strict Calvinistic family background. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and ordained in the Church of England in 1839. Influenced by the teaching of John Henry Newman, Faber followed Newman into the Roman Catholic Church in 1845 and served under Newman's supervision in the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. Because he believed that Roman Catholics should sing hymns like those written by John Newton, Charles Wesley, and William Cowpe, Faber wrote 150 hymns himself. One of his best known, "Faith of Our Fathers," originally had these words in its third stanza: "Faith of Our Fathers! Mary'… Go to person page >

^ top

Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Now are the days of humblest prayer
Author:	Frederick W. Faber
Language:	English
Refrain First Line:	O, hearken when we cry
Copyright:	Public Domain

^ top

Notes

Now are the days of humblest prayer. F. W. Faber. [Lent.] Published in the 2nd edition of his Jesus and Mary, &c, 1852, in 8 stanzas of 7 lines; in his Oratory Hymns, 1854, in 5 stanzas, No. 12; and his Hymns, 1862, It is usually given in an abbreviated form, sometimes as in the Oratory Hymns as above, and again as in the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Church Hymns, 1871, where stanzas iii., vi. and vii. are omitted. In the Hymnary, 1872, it begins, "Lord, in these days of humblest prayer."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

^ top