Caryll Houselander “The Reed” (pg 359)

The Virgin Mary as a hollow reed, ready for the Breath of God to make music in her.

As she wrote to wartime Londoners, “Because he [Christ] has made us ‘other Christs,’ because his life continues in each of us, there is nothing that any one of us can suffer which is not the passion he suffered.” In this way, her intuitive religious vision anticipated Pope Pius XII’s encyclical on the “Mystical Body of Christ.”[1]

Mary is presented the great agent of change. Mary answers for the whole world, Be it done unto me”. Houselander’s desire was to have her lines out into the world, even if bombs were falling. She counseled many of those traumatized by the war. She was hyper attuned to other’s suffering and vulnerable herself. Though single and childless, these are her lullabies to us, her prayers.

Being precede thought, action

Hollowness, Augustine, late have I loved thee. Man is a shell without Grace

Word of God, think Scripture, part but not the whole

WOG Christ, infinitely more than the words on paper

Residual empiricism through modernism. Strong hold can’t love that which is not measured. If its not in the Bible, not to be loved. God can’t be contained within the written word

Sola Fides, answer to the poem, seems concrete form for sake of abstraction. Go from paper to the Person, a hard transition.

VII. Hesitancy & Gratitude for this topic

Cover flap, many devout believers recoil from poetry, even though it is deeply Catholic. Thomas Aquinas, who wrote poetry, was ambivalent about poem’s ability to speak truth.[2] These selections would make a fitting Lenten &/or Easter season devotion.

Nice for a person hold a key to open a door we can’t. We need a mentor then we can understand.

He wants man to live in communion with others. Someone needs to assist especially in these profound endeavors.

[1] https://www.ncronline.org/culture/book-reviews/new-biography-caryll-houselander-illuminates-20th-century-catholic-writer  accessed March 3, 2025

[2] Read xx

The post 100 Great Catholic Poems IX appeared first on Fides et Ratio.