“The boy should enclose and keep, as his life, the old child at the heart of him, and never let it go. He must still, to be a right man, be his mother’s darling, and more, his father’s pride, and more. The child is not meant to die, but to be forever fresh born.”* –George MacDonald (b. 1824- d. 1905), The Princess and Curdie
“The child is not meant to die, but to be forever fresh born.”
This reminds me of the following, from Caryll Houselander’s Reed of God:
“The Child Christ lives on from generation to generation in the poets, very often the frailest of men but men whose frailty is redeemed by a child’s unworldliness, by a child’s delight in loveliness, by the spirit of wonder. Christ was a poet, and all through His life the Child remains perfect in Him. It was the poet, the unworldly poet, who was King of the invisible kingdom; the priests and rulers could not understand that. The poets understand it, and they, too, are kings of the invisible kingdom, vassal kings of the Lord of Love, and their crowns are crowns of thorns indeed.”
“Christ was a poet, and all through His life the Child remains perfect in Him.”
The Gospel does, indeed, turn the world upside down.
*I would like to add, in reference to the MacDonald quote (above): if you never were your mother’s darling or your father’s pride, perhaps due to the death of one, a difficult childhood, or any number of reasons, do not think these examples do not apply to you; for at your Baptism into the Roman Catholic Church you became God’s adopted son (or daughter), and at that moment became the darling of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the pride of your Father in Heaven. Claim this Baptismal birthright.
Have a beautiful day.
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Information on George MacDonald: here
And, on Caryll Houselander: here
