Advent with Caryll Houselander

Here are some of the pieces that Caryll Houselander wrote about Advent in The Reed of God.

Advent is the season of the secret, the secret of the growth of Christ, of Divine Love growing in silence. (28)

It is a time of darkness, of faith. We shall not see Christ's radiance in our lives yet; it is still hidden in our darkness; nevertheless, we must believe that he is growing in our lives; we must believe it so firmly that we cannot help relating everything, literally everything, to this almost incredible reality.

This attitude it is which makes every moment of every day and night a prayer. (29)

We must not try to force Christ's growth in us, but with a deep gratitude for the light burning secretly in our darkness, we must fold our concentrated love upon him like earth, surrounding, holding, and nourishing the seed. . . . carrying him to wherever he longs to be. . . . (34)

In the seasons of our Advent--waking, working, eating, sleeping, being--each breath is a breathing of Christ into the world. (38)

It was said of Caryll Houselander that she was a "neurotic mystic" and a "sharp-tongued recluse with overwhelming empathy for the suffering." A good article about her says this:

"Halfway through the war, doctors had begun sending patients to Houselander for counseling and therapy. Badly educated, she nevertheless had an uncanny ability to rebuild trust and self-confidence. These people, like the infant Jesus, were unable to fend for themselves and needed "mothering." Never married, Houselander had no children of her own to mother, nor had she ever been properly mothered. She saw these children (and adults) of war as the infant Christ, for whom the only acceptable response was the gift of self. The infant Christ depended on each person to be as a mother, carrying him into the world, and this is what she worked hard to do. One eminent psychiatrist who referred troubled patients to her, Dr. Eric Strauss, said Houselander "loved them back to life." She was, he said, a "divine eccentric.""