"The importance of the doctrine will be more clearly seen when we consider what the presence of original sin in the soul implies. It implies the absence of that holiness 'without which no man shall see the Lord,' a state of separation from God, the loss of supernatural grace with the consequent incapacity to know, love, and serve God and to attain to union with Him. It does not imply the total corruption of human nauture, but only a loss or privation of what human nature needs for its perfection. Now it is clear from the words of the Archangel at the Annunciation, 'Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women,' that our Lady was not then in a state either of original or actual sin. For fullness of grace and sin cannot exist at once in the soul, neither does God dwell in the soul which is in a state of sin. There has never been any real question in the Church of the sinlessness of Mary from her birth..."
Bede Frost (Anglican Benedictine monk of Nashdom):
'The Mystery of Mary' (Mowbray, 1938)
Ave Maria: the setting by the sixteenth century English composer Robert Parsons,
sung by The Sixteen
Here is a song to help people who do not think about Christmas, to think.
ReplyDeleteBede Frost was NOT an Anglican monk of Nashdom, but was simply connected to Nashdom as an Oblate. It was his son Dom Raymund who was a monk at Belmont the RC Abbey.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the correction. I imagine the confusion arose because of the title page of his classic work, 'The Art of Mental Prayer', where he is described as 'The Rev. Bede Frost of Nashdom Abbey, Burnham, Bucks' and from the fact that the Abbot in his preface refers to the book as one 'which springs from his own Community.'
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