Part III : The Crown of Goodness : Chapter 8 : § 2.1-2

Chapter 8 : The Seventh Star or Splendour of the Crown of Goodness of the MOTHER OF GOD

She is Mother of Mercy 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).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac (Poggi, 2020)

§ 2. The extent of the MOTHER OF GOD’s mercies

 1   The Holy Prophet Job uttered a great thought when he said of his experience: From my infancy mercy grew up with me : and it came out with me from my mother’s womb[1]. There is no mere creature to whom these words apply more fittingly than to the Holy Virgin, for with the grace of her first sanctification she was anointed with the oil of mercy more liberally than all other creatures taken together and at that point her heart was bathed with the gentle balm of heavenly sweetness. Henceforth she was to grow unceasingly in this most excellent virtue and she made such progress as to be beyond our understanding. Just as she continued to grow in all the other virtues not in the way that we do, but as would befit her status as MOTHER OF GOD, the sweet inclination of her heart to show sympathy with human sufferings and misfortunes became so powerful through her repeated acts of mercy that she had already reached a level beyond the comprehension of the Angels when she was chosen to be the Mother of the King of Heaven. The Blessed St Agnes appeared one day to St Bridget[2] and revealed to her that :  

The glorious Virgin reached a point where she would prefer to endure any amount of personal suffering rather than look upon poor souls who would not be redeemed. 

It was, says St Bonaventure[3], at the blessed moment when she was visited by Heaven’s Ambassador that the words of the Royal Prophet[4] were fulfilled in her : Deep calleth on deep. The deep wells of the Virgin’s mercy called down from Heaven the oceanic depths of God’s inexhaustible mercy. With the intermingling of these two sources of mercy, the sacred heart of the Virgin was swallowed up in the immensity of God’s eternal mercy and the divine Word did not disdain to respond to the sorrowful cries coming from human hearts. 

Where could we find words to explain the growth of the Holy Virgin’s mercy resulting from her intimate union with God’s infinite goodness? How could we describe the progress she made from that moment until the end of her life, surpassing herself from one moment to the next, and feeling each day more and more moved by our misfortunes and sufferings? Who could begin to understand the extent of her merciful love now that her heart had become as though divinized and totally swallowed up in the limitless ocean of the unimaginable tenderness of the most holy Trinity?

  

Footnotes

[1] Job xxxi. 18.

[2] Lib. I Revelat. S. Brigittæ, c. 30.

[3] Cap. 5 Speculi B. Virg.

[4] Psal. XLI 8.

 2   I am mindful of what St Bonaventure[1] wrote concerning this:

There is no one able to measure the extent of this mercy apart from Him who made the blessed Virgin incomprehensible to everyone else, not only because of the grace and glory He communicated to her, but also because of the mercy with which He filled her heart.

In the limited space available it would not be possible to do justice to the immensity of our Holy Mother’s merciful kind-heartedness ; suffice it to say for our purposes that it is greater than our misfortunes and exceeds all our necessities. In its breadth, it encompasses all our intentions, whether interior or exterior, whether in the body or in the spirit. In its length, it extends to the hour of our death and even goes beyond since its fruits are eternal. In its depth, it plunges into sin’s abysses to rescue those who have fallen and even into the very centre of hell to free those trapped therein. In height, it reaches unto the heavenly empyrean, the final end and objective of her merciful actions. 

There you have in general terms what I shall be focusing on in greater detail during the remaining chapters of Part III where I shall be revealing the splendours of the holy Virgin’s Mercy towards her beloved children. I pray that the blessed Virgin will look with merciful favour upon this my undertaking,  just as she has hitherto served as my guide and my support. I shall begin with external mercies and then proceed step by step to discuss the internal ones as well as those which are for us the most important. 

[1] Speculi B. Virg., c. 5.

[End of Chapter 8]

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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