Chapter 3 : The Second Star or Splendour of the Crown of Goodness of the MOTHER OF GOD
She is a loving Mother for her children
Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré’s Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).
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| Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac (Poggi, 2020) |
§ 1. The Holy Virgin is the Mother of fair Love : the origin of this Love
3 The beloved Disciple was not mistaken when he told[1] us God the Father is Love or Charity; I have learned from St Augustine[2] that neither of these two names is holier than the other, and the great St Denis[3] actually speaks even more highly of the word Love, teaching us that the Theologians (by whom he meant the Apostles and their first disciples), in order to correct the common people who understood the word Love in a profane sense, were more happy to use it in relation to divine things than even the word dilection[4]. If God the Father is Love, I repeat, then faith teaches us that He is the foremost storehouse of all holy Love and we could not possibly doubt that He would have shared the treasures of this Love with His dear Daughter, meaning the Holy Virgin whom He granted to his only begotten Son as Spouse and Mother at one and the same time. Since the Father of all Beauty managed this union through Love, and through Love gave His Son unto the world, through love united Him to our nature, and through love chose for Him a Mother and Spouse – does not reason require us to believe that the rings and jewels that He gave her were of Love, her dowry was of Love, her wedding train was of Love, and that this Love was the holiest and the most divine that could be found under God? In short, was she not the Daughter of fair Love? Our minds are too weak to take in riches such as these and we must be content with knowing that it is God the Father who provided His beloved daughter to His only-begotten Son, since anything beyond this exceeds our understanding.
Footnotes
[1] God is charity: and he that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him. 1 John iv. 16.
[2] Lib. XIV de Civit., c. 7.
[3] Lib. de Divin. nom., c. 4.
[4] Dilection : love, affection: almost always, spiritual or Christian love, or the love of God to man or of man to God (OED). From Lat. dilectio: see for example : ut dilectio, qua dilexisti me, in ipsis sit, et ego in ipsis, which the Douay-Rheims translates as : that the love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them, and I in them. John xvii. 26.
4 There we have the first source of fair Love. The second is that which makes her most properly the Mother of fair Love: it is the union, or perhaps it is better to say the unity the Mother has with her Son, and St Paul[1] rightly recognises this as the second principle of Love. In chapter 12 of St Luke’s Gospel[2], this same Son portrays Himself as a flaming globe come down on earth to set the whole world on fire with love. The pious St Bernard[3] has no doubts on this matter:
No one would be so rash as to deny that Mary’s womb, wherein the love of God dwelt for nine whole months, was transformed into the womb of Love.
Not to be outdone by his Master, the Abbott Guerric says[4]:
After the Virgin had brought into the world her most dear Son, she did not remain barren but from that moment onwards she never ceased to bring forth fruits of love and Piety; The Blessed Fruit of her womb by being born of her left her pregnant with inexhaustible Love; her Son emerged from the confines of her sacred womb in such a way that in the midst of this enclosed garden of her virginity He caused a living spring of love to pour forth for the refreshment of thirsty souls.
Might I venture to suggest that the Blessed Cardinal Peter Damian takes this idea to an even higher level, truly redolent of divine majesty? This is what he says[5]:
The Majesty of the divine Word was like nutritious fat from heaven which in a wondrous manner melted in the chaste womb of the Mother of God – filling the earth, nourishing the heavens and even reaching down unto hell. There in her womb the Most High and Infinite One annihilated Himself in order to fill our hearts with His superabundant love; there, as before the Holy Altar, He received from His Eternal Father the unction of priesthood and from there He went forth to be anointed a second time with the oil of His precious blood, by means of which the whole world received a heavenly consecration.
The venerable Euthymius, whilst giving a speech in honour of the Holy Virgin in the noble city of Constantinople, spoke as follows[6]:
Nobody should be astonished that she was incomparable in goodness and in kind-heartedness, since such a disposition was suited to Him whom she had carried in her womb and who had prepared her as a safe refuge for us in all our necessities.
To sum up : What else can I say other than that the Saviour, having come into this world to preach and establish a law of Love, gave the first lesson to His most holy Mother – but with such perfection that she surpassed in an instant the most sublime of the Seraphim ?
Footnotes
[1] Tit. iii.
[2] I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled? Luke xii. 49.
[3] Serm. 1 de Assumpt.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Serm. in Annnntiat.
[6] In Adoratione Zonæ Deiparæ.
5 What should I say about the third source which is the Holy Spirit, worthy Spouse of the Blessed Virgin, substantial Love within the most holy Trinity, and who for this reason is called by Holy Church[1] the fountain of life, fire come down from Heaven, charity and spiritual unction – which are all symbols of what He is, namely Holy Love? Try to imagine how He would have communicated His Charity – indeed Himself – to His most chaste Spouse when the mystery of Love, which is the union of the divine Word with our nature, was accomplished in her.
Where could we find anyone, asked the pious St Bonaventure[2], with greater right to receive His graces and favours than the most blessed Spouse whom He was to make the Mother of Fair Love, as He was Father of the same?
How noble is this birth of Fair love! How holy! How divine! How beautiful is this love, since it proceeds from God, it finishes in God, it is from God, in God and for God alone! When I say for God alone, I am not claiming this is to the exclusion of her dear children, in whose favour she was so abundantly suffused with blessings of love, but only so that all might know that this Love had a birth which was heavenly and divine; for this reason it always oriented towards God, no more nor less than to its centre and its unique place of rest.
Footnotes
[1] fons vivus, ignis, caritas, et spiritalis unctio / living spring, fire/light, love, and spiritual unction. From the hymn Veni, Creator Spiritus, attributed to Rabanus Maurus (776-856). See Thesaurus Precum Latinarum.
[2] Speculi B. Virg., c. 6.
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| The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century. |
SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
© Peter Bloor 2025
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