A Child in Winter: Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany with Caryll Houselander [Hardcover]

The twentieth-century bohemian artist Caryll Houselander is a fascinating figure in English spirituality. Described by Maisie Ward as a “divine eccentric,” the mystic Houselander focused her work on those on the margins, especially troubled children and refugees. Permeating her vision of God as Father and Mother was an empathy with others, a firm scriptural grounding, a gift for seeing the divine in the ordinary, an intuitive Christology, and a devotion to Mary and the saints.

In “A Child in Winter: Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany with Caryll Houselander,” Thomas Hoffman has selected passages from Houselander’s works and organized them into a series of daily meditations for Advent and the twelve days of Christmas. He provides a scriptural passage to introduce each meditation, followed by a brief comment and closing prayer.

The meditation for the Saturday of the first week of Advent has stuck in my mind. In a passage from “The Passion of the Infant Christ,” Houselander makes a distinction between “expensive” and “simple” people. Expensive people are those whose demands on us — whether because they are “untruthful or touchy or hypersensitive or that they have an exaggerated idea of their own importance or that they have a pose” — are so complicated that “we cannot respond spontaneously and simply, without anxiety,” to them. Simple persons, in contrast, are those who accept themselves as they are and consequently make only minimal demands on others. In his comment, Hoffman takes Houselander’s trenchant remarks and suggests that fidelity to our baptismal vows will move us away from being “expensive” persons and result in an honest gift of self to others.

This was good spiritual reading to help keep the Christian in the mindset of the real meaning of this time dedicated to the incarnation and to help him truly appreciate the advent/Christmas season in all of its liturgical length–from the first Sunday of Advent to the Baptism of Jesus. Caryll Houselander’s writings stand easily on their own, and are well worth reading in their full and original texts, but Hoffman’s reflections and short prayers were usually a good addition. They are nicely arranged to fit the season. While it is more common to use this type of spiritual aid during Lent, this volume shows that Advent is an equally appropriate time to use the same sort of approach. During the hustle and bustle of December and the “new beginnings” of January, these little reflections, short as they each were, serve as a healthy opportunity to reflect on what it is all really about. Though the tree and decorations of the cultural celebration may have long been returned to their place in the attic, A Child in Winter carries the reader gently through to the absolute completion of this holy season.