The Divine Motherhood by Dom Anscar Vonier, OSB - Forward

With this post, I begin publishing The Divine Motherhood by Dom Anscar Vonier.  The work is now in the public domain.

Abbot Vonier was a Benedictine monk who lived from 1876 to 1938. He was elected Abbot of Buckfast Abbey, England, in 1906, and served in that capacity until his death. During his lifetime Vonier gained fame as the rebuilder of Buckfast, which had been left in ruins following the Reformation, and as the author of some 15 books of popular theology — works which developed “a vast company of admirers who welcomed every new book of his with enthusiasm.”

THE DIVINE MOTHERHOOD 

FOREWORD.

THERE is not a controversial word in this book. It is written for the believer who accepts the full theology of the Incarnation.

It is a difficult thing for our mind to place itself in an atmosphere so serene as not to take account of the fact that there have been heresies. Yet I think that anyone who wants to enjoy his faith in the Incarnation as fully as it is possible here on earth, must pay no attention to heresy and must practically ignore its existence. The positive side of our theology of the Incarnation is so wonderful, so immense, that the mind can find untold satisfaction in its contemplation, without in the least feeling the need of looking at the negative side, the contradiction. It is with this sense of undisturbed spiritual possession that this book on the Blessed Mother of God is written, for people who no more doubt the fact that the Son of God is the Son of Mary, than the fact that they were born of their own respective mothers. Human motherhood is the easiest as well as the sweetest subject of man’s speech; let divine maternity be as natural and as obvious a truth to us who believe in the Incarnation.

Buckfast Abbey, May 1921.

ANSCAR VONIER O. S. B., Abbot.