Literary genius Caryll Houselander wrote this book out of an abiding compassion for those who are suffering and in search of healing and happiness. She presents in these pages gripping examples of famous men and women who battled some form of neurosis that led to either their sanctification or their destruction.
The greatest suffering of our age is psychological pain, Houselander argues. A sufferer of neurosis herself, she unpacks the phenomenon that creates ego-neurosis -- a type of disordered self-love that, at its core, attempts to satisfy our hunger for Christ. She reveals how failure to cultivate this essential relationship results in anxiety, disordered behavior, and psychological ailments such as scrupulosity, aberrant sexual behavior, hypochondria, and assorted manias.
God waits to embrace you with healing love and lavish you with redeeming graces, she explains. But you must first respond to His invitation. Houselander shows how sacramental Confession -- the miracle of atonement with God -- uniquely serves to alleviate your guilt and restore harmony to your soul. With her stirring meditations on hope, she shows you that Christ "fell in love" with us and took "all the suffering of guilt on Himself, wedding Himself to our sorrow, and offering the sacrifice of His own death on the Cross." Incredibly, He re-creates us and gives us the fullness of joy through the gift of "spiritual childhood."
In this thoroughly penetrating and rewarding book, Houselander will also help you:
- Accept your nature, avoid escapism, and open your heart to God's mercy through the sacraments
- Surrender your self-pity, adore God's boundless love, and strive to alleviate the suffering of others
- Enter the immensity of God's life and enjoy the freedom and love you were created to receive
- "Put on Christ" and employ the supernatural weapons of prayer and sacrifice
- Be a co-redeemer with Jesus by performing ordinary tasks with love to transform the world
- Let Christ be formed in you like Mary and echo her Fiat, which releases the Holy Spirit's power
