Chapter 9 : The Eighth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Goodness of the MOTHER OF GOD
She is the strong and valiant defender of 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) |
The love of a mother is especially characterised by its tenderness but it is remarkable to behold how as soon as anyone threatens to lay a finger upon a mother’s children, an alarm bell rings and weakness is suddenly transformed into courage; love issues a call to arms and there is no creature in nature more to be feared than a mother springing to the defence of her offspring. It should be pointed out, however, that the effects of grace go still further, providing mothers with incomparably greater powers than nature for the defence of their children. We shall see this in THE MOTHER OF GOD who, through the ways she comes to help her children, makes them see more and more clearly the blessings they enjoy of being under her protection.
§ 1. The Holy Virgin is valiant defender of her children
1 You would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by the great care that God takes and the different means he explores to win over our hearts and deliver us from earthly attachments. Just take a moment to consider how this is recorded in the Sacred Scriptures. He attributes to Himself the love of a mother bear[1], the strength of a rhinoceros[2], the adroitness of a unicorn[3] and the courage of a lion[4] – assuring us thereby that He will never be wanting in love for us in our undertakings, nor in wisdom as He guides them, nor in strength to keep us safe. He gives His word[5] that He will come to our defence when we are attacked by strangers, He will strengthen us in our weakness, protect us from the ravages of time, shelter us from the noonday heat and be our staff to prevent us from stumbling. He promises to be our protective shield[6], our defensive bastion[7], our encircling rampart[8], and our life-saving citadel[9]. He declares that He will protect us under the shadow of His wings[10], He will bear us upon His shoulders[11], He will cherish and protect us as the apple of His eye[12], He will shelter us in the secret of His face[13] as in an impregnable fortress. Consider the unheard sweetness of our God who wishes to offer us His divine face as our unique haven of safety! Consider the incomparable happiness of his children who are assured with the assurance of Him who is immutable in His essence! Just as He alone deserves to be called strong, so too He wants to have the honour of defending us unaided. The Prophet Isaiah[14] records how He alone defended His own against the hand of their enemies, and how they were saved only by His arm and His courage. Through the mouth of the Prophet Jeremiah[15], He pronounces His curse against all those looking for support from anyone other than Him and placing their trust in earthly powers. To sum up : the whole of Sacred Scripture makes clear there is nothing of which He is more jealous than being the unique defender of His children.
Footnotes
[1] I will meet them as a bear that is robbed of her whelps, and I will rend the inner parts of their liver: Osee (Hosea) xiii. 8
[2] God hath brought him out of Egypt, whose strength is like to the rhinoceros : Numbers xxiii. 22.
[3] And he built his sanctuary as of unicorns, in the land which he founded for ever. Psal. LXXVII. 69.
[4] The lion shall roar, who will not fear? Amos iii. 8.
[5] No evils shall happen to him that feareth the Lord, but in temptation God will keep him, and deliver him from evils. Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xxxiii. 1.
[6] His truth shall compass thee with a shield: Psal. XC. 5.
[7] For thou hast been my hope; a tower of strength against the face of the enemy. Psal. LX. 4.
[8] And I will make thy bulwarks of jasper: and thy gates of graven stones, and all thy borders of desirable stones. Isai. liv. 12.
[9] The Lord is the protector of my life: of whom shall I be afraid? …If armies in camp should stand together against me, my heart shall not fear…For he hath hidden me in his tabernacle; in the day of evils, he hath protected me in the secret place of his tabernacle. Psal. XXVI.
[10] Protect me under the shadow of thy wings. Psal. XVI. 8.
[11] As the eagle enticing her young to fly, and hovering over them, he spread his wings, and hath taken him and carried him on his shoulders: Deuteronomy xxxii.11.
[12] From them that resist thy right hand keep me, as the apple of thy eye. Psal. XVI. 8.
[13] Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy face, from the disturbance of men. Psal. XXX. 32.
[14] I have trodden the wine press alone… I looked about, and there was none to help: I sought, and there was none to give aid: and my own arm hath saved for me, and my indignation itself hath helped me. Isai. LXIII. 3-5.
[15] Thus saith the Lord: Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord: Jerem. xvii. v.
2 None of this derogates in any way from the privileges of the MOTHER OF GOD whom He Himself has given to us as our Defender, our Guardian and our Protectress. In fact, He intends her to be the one to whom we have recourse in all our necessities. When He does something for us through her, He is doing it Himself and one of the things that gives Him the greatest satisfaction is to see us placing our most particular trust in her. The Saints themselves confirm that after God no one takes more care of us than she does, or comes anywhere near to doing so. This was the pronouncement of the great St Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, who stated[1]:
After her Son, not one of the Saints looks after our affairs and understands our misfortunes and sufferings in the way that she does.
This too is the view of St Gregory, Archbishop of Nicomedia[2], of St Andrew of Candia[3] and of St John Damascene[4] who in this connection compare her to the Tabernacle of the Covenant, of which it is written in the book of Leviticus[5]: I will set my tabernacle in the midst of you, and my soul shall not cast you off. In Chapter four of Isaiah[6], God makes a promise to His people that this same tabernacle will protect them from the summer’s sweltering heat and shelter them from the rains, storms and all the tribulations of wintry weather. Who could possibly put a number on all those who have been delivered from their misfortunes through having had recourse to this divine Tabernacle? Who could accurately put a value of the assurance we have in the MOTHER OF GOD? Who could describe the ways and the means she has discovered to send us her help and to deliver us from the midst of dangers? Who would be able to portray the love in her heart as she comes to our aid, helping us to avoid dangerous encounters and occasions of sin? What has she not done and what does she not cease to do everyday to instil in us a lively confidence to go straight to her in all our necessities? Sometimes we can see her holding her children by the hand to stop them from falling over, covering them with her protective mantle; at other times, we can see her cradling her beloved children in her arms. In this we can see on the one hand a wonderful gentleness and on the other the trust of her little infants nestling in her protection.
We should not judge, says the pious Abbot Guerric[7], that it is a greater privilege to be received into the bosom of Abraham than into Mary’s bosom; on the contrary, it is to share in the prerogative of the King of Glory, who established in her His throne and His abode.
A thousand times happy are they who enjoy the blessings of her wondrous protection! I should dearly like to represent this in the fullness of its reality; but in the time we have available it will be more than enough for me to say a few words about the glory of such a dear Mother and the consolation experienced by her children.
Footnotes
[1] Orat. in Adoratione Zonæ Deip.
[2] Orat. de Oblat. B. Virg.
[3] Serm. de Annuntiat.
[4] Orat. de Nativ. B. Virg.
[5] Leviticus xxvi. 11.
[6] And there shall be a tabernacle for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a security and covert from the whirlwind, and from rain. Isai. iv. 6.
[7] Serm. 1 de Assumpt.
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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
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