Customer Reviews

An unforgettable, hauntingly beautiful work - By: Mrs. Sheila Jacob, 06 Jun 2006
They say that your life is never the same after you have read certain books;this is certainly true of my encounter with "The Reed of God". Caryll Houselander shows us how she grew spiritually from a childhood perception of Mary as something of a pious,plaster killjoy into the realisation that Mary became the "reed" through which God spoke when she said her "yes" to the angel Gabriel & allowed Jesus to be conceivedin her womb.Houselander's prose is vivid,lyrical(indeed,a musical them resonates throughout the book)and her insights are well before their time.Mary,she reveals,is the living symbol of all humanity:we are all called to give this "Fiat";to let the Christ Child be conceived within our hearts & souls & to take him out into the world ;to act for Him & as Himin all that we do,however humble & insignificant our rolein life.This is a theme which Houselander sresses & developsin all her work & which was integral to her spirituality:that Christ dwellsin all of us & we are called to bring his love to a hurting world.She wrote "The Reed of God" during World War 11;it was publishedin 1944 & her poignant passages about the suffering of the "Christ-in-us"in the fallen soldiers,refugees,orphans,widows are still painfully relevant.
I can scarcely do justice to this work but urge you to read it for yourself to be amazed,instructed & rejuvenated.