The Human Soul

     In the eyes of God the human soul is a jewel of infinite worth, of more value than the whole world with all its splendor and majesty.

     But what do we think of the soul so highly prized by God? What do we know of our own soul?

     The Human Soul, Abbot Vonier’s first and most popular book, was written to open the eyes of readers to the tremendous frontiers of their true country: the immortal soul. Written with “a youthful freshness and vigor,” it is a work of rare inspiration, “such as to make one hold one’s breath at the beauty and grandeur of what we so lightly, without thought, call our soul.”

Praise for Abbot Vonier and The Human Soul
“There are those who regard The Human Soul as the Abbot’s finest work, and he himself considered it his best.”
– Dom Ernst Graf, Abbot Vonier’s biographer

“This book shows us where true happiness lies, and how to gain it. It is an important book, a powerful book.”
– Ralph McInerny, writing in the Foreword

“Those seeking spiritual wisdom will find it here. Vonier was a master, and his work is as inspiring and fresh as ever.”
– Matthew Levering, author Christ and the Catholic Priesthood

“Abbot Vonier was the most gifted dogmatic theologian writing in England during his lifetime. The Vonier revival is a highly encouraging sign of the return of classical doctrine in the Church.”
– Aidan Nichols, author The Shape of Catholic Theology

“In the summer of 1913 I was groping my way from unbelief towards the Catholic Church. I had realized that for me it was that or nothing; but the difficulties were great.
     Then I met with Abbot Vonier’s newly published book The Human Soul. This cleared the ground for me, explaining almost everything that had seemed puzzling or unreasonable.
     It now appeared to me most probable that Christianity, and so Catholicism, was truth. But I could not stake my life on a high degree of probability. I could only wait, and pray as best I could for light.
     Then, on 22nd January 1914, I went to hear Abbot Vonier preach.
     The impression of power was something the like of which I have never experienced before or since: the black-robed monk, with pale face and dark, flashing eyes, standing on the altar steps.
     Almost every sentence might have been expanded into a sermon, and one was in danger of trying to follow a train of thought suggested by what he was saying at one moment and so missing what came next.
     At the end I felt that something was breaking down – or opening out – within me; and when the monstrance was placed on the altar, I knew, with that incommunicable, almost imperceptible touch in the depths of one’s being, which is Faith.”
– This testimony, by an unknown woman, is set forth in Dom Ernst Graf’s biography, Anscar Vonier: Abbot of Buckfast