A Rocking Horse Catholic

The actual content of this book is fantastic. I love how the author tells her story. So well written, entertains and poignant in spots. I was reading it on kindle and liked it so much I ordered a hard copy. Print looks to be a put 10pt and there are no breaks between paragraphs. Small margins. So you have a full page of tiny text. I took a star off for layout. On content alone it’s five stars but my eyes have trouble reading a big page covered with text with no breaks. There are different editions. Mine had a cover with a horse head on it (not The whole rocking horse).

The final poem Houselander wrote some months before her death is called, "The Birth." The first line reads, There was always the crowd...Never before have I read so succinctly such empathy in a personal account of a Catholic convert. Houseplants doesn't shy from sharing her faults, her doubts, her hang ups. At the same time, she isn't navel gazing, doesn't invoke pity in the reader. She shows that Christ can be found in each of us.Her reverence for God and the Church is clearly written in her experience with her family, friends, her own solitude and her place within the multitude, as well as her very personal encounters with Jesus.Her poem at the end is a beautiful tribute; a poetic Creed.

I'm so grateful to Catholic Way publishing for making these inexpensive e-books available. I downloaded this onto my Kindle app on my phone and read it between driving kids back and forth to the pool. It's a quick read but has some very beautiful passages that are worth lingering over. I have never really bothered to read anything Houselander had written, but this book has me hooked- I want to pick up some of her devotional books and try to find her poetry ("The Flowering Tree", which refers to the Cross- the flower being the grace of Christ.) A lot of people don't seem to care for her poetry but I find it very moving. Recommended for ages 12 and up- there's no scandalous backstory here, and I found her description of her unconventional and sad English childhood to be charming in its own melancholy way.

I really enjoy Caryll Houslander's writing style. In this book, she only tells her story up to the point of her reversion to Catholicism. I suppose I will have to look to other books to learn more about the rest of her life. I also would have a liked a little more detail during some parts of the book. I have already started reading her book, The Reed of God, and I look forward to reading more by her.

First of all let me specify that my rating is based on the copies as they are, not on the overall shipping or an analysis of the content (I bought four copies, one for myself and three as a gift).I had originally read this book in the first edition that was published in 1955. It is the autobiography of Frances Caryll Houselander, a famous English Catholic writer of the twentieth century: a beautiful book giving a deep peek on her personality and her spiritual growth.This copy, in particular is a re-publication. Upon reading it again, I noticed there were several printing errors and almost two and a half pages missing at the end of chapter three. I even contacted the publisher and they confirmed my statement and they notified that they would have stopped selling this book: I assume they mean that it will stop selling once all printed copies are sold out. If the book you purchased ends at chapter three with these words (I sprang from my seat and tried to rush out), then it means that what you have is a copy with the errors I referred to above. So in the end, one star is for the quality of the book: publisher should have checked that it was properly written and conform to the original book.

Often memoirs are overly sweet and sentimental, and religious memoirs can be sometimes too pious, but Caryll Houselander's Rocking Horse Catholic is fresh, surprising, and moving. She didn't feel too holy for me to relate to; her experiences in many ways were much like my own. The meditative narrations on what she took to heart are effective and cut through to the soul. I was surprised by how this has stuck with me after reading it. She is a writer on par with other great spiritual authors. I am surprised I had not encountered her writings before now.

Quite a lot of childhood history and insight but I felt the ending wanting.. not as much summation as I felt I needed as a reader .

This is just a short semi-autobiographical story, but her writing and her insights are masterful. I wish she had written more. This story gave my dark soul hope.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone who maybe unsure of their faith.

What I like especially was Miss Houselander's candid portrayal of growing up in England before WW II. Her designation as a "Rocking-horse Catholic" captures the flavour of her "girlhoodness". Her depth of insight into a child's soul belies the obtuseness the world and the authoritarian idiosyncracies of folks in power then. Caryll's insight into a child's soul pierces the current culture then with Christ's Love for "the little one". Concerning “The ‘touch of God", she writes " One thing, however, is certain: when He comes, He will always come in the way that the particular soul can most easily realize and most easily respond to, and which is least likely to be confused with the possibility of hallucination. The ordinary way —and how amazing that it is the ordinary way —is in the Blessed Sacrament: this is the way that even little children can realize; it is as simple to accept bread on the table, and it is the way that Christ Himself desires to come. That, surely, is one reason why He has given Himself to the (His) Church, not only into the hands of Saints, but into the hands of all kinds of men, many of whom are sinners.” Houselander is equally perceptive of "the halls of power": "Adoration is necessary to man, his heart must adore or die; men fallen away from God adore - or idolize - power, State, machinery, anything that seems bigger than themselves, to combine mystery WITH (MEASUREABLE) MIGHT".