Caryll Houselander

Commentary:  On this holy Christmas Day, Caryll Houselander leads us to see beyond the historical birth of Christ to its ongoing mystery: Christ is born anew in each of us today. The crib, displayed in homes and churches around the world, is a symbol not only of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem but also of His continuous birth in every heart willing to receive Him. This message invites us to recognize that Christ lives wherever a soul, like Mary, says “yes” to Him. Whether in places of joy or sorrow, prosperity or ruin, the miracle of the Incarnation is happening now, in our world and in our lives. Houselander reminds Catholics that every act of faith, every baptism, every confession, and every encounter with grace is a re-birth of Christ in us, a fresh arrival of His love.

Personal Reflection: As you celebrate Christmas, consider how you are invited to let Christ be born in your heart today. How can you, like Mary, offer a “yes” that allows His presence to take root within you? Reflect on the ways in which Christ can live through you in each moment, making His love visible in the world.

Quote taken from – Caryll Houselander The Passion of the Infant Christ, Sheed & Ward, 1949

Commentary:  On this final day of Advent, Caryll Houselander brings us to the quiet, humble scene of Christ’s birth. She reminds us that His coming was unassuming—soft, hidden in the midst of a noisy, distracted world. God’s approach, she says, is never forceful but always gentle, finding His way into our lives through the people around us. He is in those who need us, those who challenge us, and those who love us. This final Advent reflection calls us to embrace a “sacramental love”—a love that sees Christ in others, even when it is difficult or unexpected, and responds with the tenderness of Christ’s own love.

As Catholics, we are reminded that loving well, as Christ loves, is the highest calling and the greatest way to welcome Him into our world. This Christmas Eve, let us commit to a love that is supernatural, one that transforms our relationships into holy encounters with Christ Himself.

Personal Reflection: As you prepare your heart for Christmas, take a moment to reflect on someone in your life in whom you may have struggled to see Christ. How can you choose to love them with a “sacramental” love today, opening your heart to God’s gentle presence in them? Let this love be your gift to the Christ child, welcoming Him into your life as He comes again in the quiet of Christmas.

Quote taken from – Caryll Houselander The Passion of the Infant Christ, Sheed & Ward, 1949

Commentary:  In this reflection, Caryll Houselander captures the mystery of Advent as a time when Christ, though fully divine, chose to be entirely dependent on Mary. His trust in her—His silent resting within her and reliance on her for every act of love—is a profound image of how He desires to dwell within us. Just as Mary’s life became an expression of Christ’s love, so too are we invited to embody His presence in the world. Houselander’s words remind Catholics that, from the moment we accept Christ into our lives, we are called to be His heart, His voice, His hands, and His vision in the world, reflecting His love for the Father and for all people.

Personal Reflection: Consider the ways in which your life can reflect Christ’s love more fully. What words, actions, or ways of seeing others might you allow Christ to transform in you, so that you become a clearer expression of His love in the world?

Quote taken from – Caryll Houselander The Passion of the Infant Christ, Sheed & Ward, 1949

The Infant Christ is the whole Christ. Christ was not more God, more Christ, more man, on the Cross than He was in His Mother’s womb. His first tear, His first smile, His first breath, His first pulsation in the womb of His Mother, could have redeemed the world.

In fact Christ chose the life of growth and work and suffering and the death on the Cross which we know, but, by His own choice, all this was to depend on a human being giving herself to Him in His infancy, giving her own humanity to the actual making of that infant’s humanity and giving Him her life in which to rest.

If all in whom Christ lives at all, in whom He is an infant—which means anyone whose soul is alive at all—surrendered themselves to Him, resting in Him, that He might rest in them, in each one of them the world’s redemption would begin as it began in Mary, the Mother of God.

Christ is formed in us, and we are formed into Christ, when we rest in Him and He rests in us.

Commentary:  Caryll Houselander powerfully conveys that Christ, even as an infant, was fully divine and fully capable of redeeming the world. The Incarnation was a complete expression of God’s presence from the very beginning, even in the smallest and most hidden moments of His life. Yet, by His own choice, Christ lived a fully human life of growth, dependence, and suffering, all beginning with Mary’s “yes” and her nurturing of His humanity. Houselander suggests that we, too, can participate in this mystery by surrendering to Christ within us, allowing His presence to grow and work through us.

For Catholics, this resonates with the understanding of Mary as the model disciple and with the call to embody Christ in our own lives, so that the world’s redemption may continue through our union with Him.

Personal Reflection: Reflect on how you might rest in Christ today, surrendering your own desires and fears to allow Him to take root in you. In what ways can you make space for Christ to “grow” within, following Mary’s example of trust and openness?

Caryll Houselander The Passion of the Infant Christ, Sheed & Ward, 1949

However difficult or however insignificant our life may seem to be, it is precious to God as Christ is precious to God. On each one in whom Christ lives, the whole of the infinite love of God is concentrated at every moment.

If this were realized there could be no one who could not fulfill the first condition of rest, which is trust.

If it were not for Christ in us, we should not be able to trust; we are too weak; we could not believe in God’s goodness if we had only ourselves to believe with, neither could we love one another if we had only ourselves to love with. We can trust God with Christ’s trust in the Father; that is the trust which is our rest.

Commentary:  Caryll Houselander reassures us that each of our lives, no matter how small or difficult they may seem, holds immense value to God because Christ lives within us. God’s infinite love and attention are concentrated on each person in whom Christ dwells. This divine presence grants us the ability to trust in ways that surpass our own limited capacities. Left to our own strength, faith and love may feel impossible, but with Christ alive in us, we can trust with His own unwavering confidence in the Father. For Catholics, this reflects the strength of union with Christ, especially in moments of prayer and sacramental grace, where we are drawn into the mystery of divine trust and rest.

Personal Reflection: Consider an area of your life where you struggle to trust. How might seeing yourself as a dwelling place of Christ help you lean on His strength rather than your own? Today, ask Christ to fill you with His trust in the Father.

Caryll Houselander The Passion of the Infant Christ, Sheed & Ward, 1949

Neither have we any words to tell of God’s love for us, but God gave His Word, Christ is the Word, telling how God loves the word. Everything that Christ said and did and experienced on earth is the Word saying, “see how God loves you!”

Not content to be a human being, Christ wishes to be each human being, and is in fact born in the soul of every one who will receive Him; and in each one in whom He lives, whose life He lives, He is loved infinitely by the Father, loved as what He is, the only Son.

Commentary:  Caryll Houselander expresses the profound mystery of God’s love made manifest in Christ, the Word. Everything Christ did, said, and endured on earth was a living proclamation of God’s love for humanity. This love is not distant or abstract; it is personal and intimate. Christ’s Incarnation reveals that He not only lived as one among us but desires to live within each of us. When we open our hearts to Him, Christ is born anew in our souls, and we are drawn into the infinite love between the Father and the Son. This insight highlights the Catholic understanding of union with Christ, particularly through the sacraments, where we receive Him and participate in this divine love.

Personal Reflection: Reflect on how Christ is born within you, calling you to live in a way that expresses God’s love. How might you embrace this intimate union with Him today, allowing His love to flow through you to others?

Caryll Houselander The Passion of the Infant Christ, Sheed & Ward, 1949,

Christ was born not because there was joy in the world, but because there was suffering in it. Not to riches, but to poverty. Not to satiety but to hunger and thirst. Not to security, but to danger, to exile, to homelessness, to destitution and crucifixion.

His incarnation now, in us, is in the suffering world as it is; it is not reserved for a Utopia that will never be; it does not differ from His first coming in Bethlehem, His birth in squalor, in dire poverty, in a strange city. It is the same birth, here and now. There is incarnation always, everywhere.

Commentary:  Caryll Houselander reflects on the profound reality of Christ’s Incarnation, emphasizing that He entered the world not in comfort but in suffering, poverty, and vulnerability. Christ came to meet humanity in its brokenness, and Houselander reminds us that His presence continues to dwell within the hardships and suffering we encounter today. His Incarnation is not only a historical event but an ongoing reality in our lives, as Christ is continually “born” in our own moments of poverty, pain, and uncertainty. For Catholics, this resonates with the call to see Christ in the marginalized, the suffering, and the forgotten, understanding that He is especially present in places of need.

Personal Reflection: Today, reflect on an area of suffering in your life or in the world around you. How can you recognize Christ’s presence there, meeting you in that place? Consider how you might bring hope and compassion to a person or situation where His love is needed.

Caryll Houselander “The Passion of the Infant Christ”

If Christ is to come to flower and bear fruit in individual lives, there must be seasons of rest in which there is almost no activity but the giving wholly of self to nourish the supernatural life; just as the earth in which the seed is buried is given to nourish the bread. But, and this is even more important, there must be a permanent state of inward rest, founded in the peace of mind which comes from complete trust.

Commentary:  Caryll Houselander emphasizes the importance of rest and trust as essential for spiritual growth. Just as a seed needs time in the earth to take root and grow, our souls need periods of stillness to allow Christ to take root within us. She encourages a state of “inward rest” based on complete trust in God, allowing us to nourish the supernatural life without constant activity or striving. For Catholics, this aligns with the value placed on contemplative prayer and the peace that flows from entrusting ourselves fully to God’s care, knowing that His work within us unfolds in His time.

Personal Reflection: Consider how you can create moments of stillness today to nourish Christ’s life within you. How can you cultivate a deeper sense of peace and trust, letting go of the need for constant activity and control?

Caryll Houselander “The Passion of the Infant Christ”

It is part of God’s plan for us that Christ shall come to us in everyone; it is in their particular role that we must learn to know him. He may come as a little child, making enormous demands, giving enormous consolation. He may come as a stranger, so that we must give the hospitality to a stranger that we should like to give to Christ.

Commentary:  Caryll Houselander beautifully reminds us that Christ often comes to us through other people, inviting us to recognize His presence in each person’s unique role. He may appear in the form of a child who requires our patience and love, or a stranger who calls us to show hospitality and generosity. This teaching echoes Christ’s words in the Gospels, where He says that whatever we do for the least of His brothers, we do for Him. For Catholics, this perspective challenges us to approach each encounter with the reverence we would give to Christ Himself, recognizing His face in those around us.

Personal Reflection: Today, be mindful of seeing Christ in each person you meet. How can you respond to others—as children, strangers, or friends—with the same love and attention you would offer to Christ Himself?

“A Child in Winter: Advent, Christmas and Epiphany with Caryll Houselander”.

It is only necessary to give ourselves to that life, all that we are, to pray without ceasing, not by a continual effort to concentrate our minds but by a growing awareness that Christ is being formed in our lives from what we are. We must trust Him for this, because it is not a time to see His face, we must possess Him secretly and in darkness, as the earth possesses the seed. 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.

Commentary:  Caryll Houselander invites us into a deeply contemplative attitude, one where we allow Christ to grow within us naturally, without forcing or striving. She reminds us that prayer is not always a focused effort of concentration but a quiet awareness that He is forming Himself within us, even in darkness. Like the earth holding a seed, we are called to embrace Christ’s presence within, trusting that He is quietly working in the hidden places of our lives. For Catholics, this reflects the contemplative tradition of silent prayer and trust in God’s unseen work within our souls.

Personal Reflection: In moments of prayer today, try to simply rest in God’s presence without striving. Imagine yourself as the earth surrounding and nourishing the growth of Christ within you. How can you deepen your trust in His quiet work, even when you don’t see immediate results?