Fr. Faber was one of the giants of 19th - century English Catholicism. A convert from Anglicanism, he was best known for his powerful sermons. During Advents, Lents, and Months of Mary, Fr. Faber would preach on matters of the spiritual life. These spiritual conferences, as he called them, were honed to perfection for this collection, which became one of his most popular books. Among the many topics and insights: Common ways people are dishonest with themselves and how to overcome them, Kindness: the grand cause of God in the world, Two mistakes we are likely to make when we study the lives of the saints, How the practice of kindness bears its greatest fruit in our spiritual lives, Plain rules for doing kind actions, Why - contrary to common opinion - our thoughts are a more true measure of ourselves than our actions are, The habit of not judging others, Kind listening: akin to kind speaking, How God sometimes makes the hour of death a private and special interview with his failing creature - sometimes to give assurance and sometimes to punish, Varieties of death: What kind should we pray for?, Why only the irreligious can ever desire a sudden death, The spiritual dangers of lingering deaths, The quiet, easy death: why it is less desirable than it appears, One type of death that is often the end of a careless life - and is the most painful to loved ones, The chief temptations of death, The final assaults of evil angels, The fear of death: one kind that is good for us and several that are very bad, What is death like? What do we look like - and experiences on our deathbed? Answers from a priest who has been present at countless deaths, Five kinds of deaths that are the most precious in the sight of God, Christian simplicity: three things in which it consists, The seven fundamental varieties of self - deceit and its five sources, Why self - deceit tends to increase with age, Wrong intentions for going to Confession, How to have confidence in God, Why does piety seem so monotonous? And what can we do about it?, Heaven and Hell: what will they be like?, The surest method of discovering God's eternal purposes for us. 345pp, hardcover.