Chapter 1 : Understanding the basis of Part IV
The reasons we have for offering thanksgiving to the MOTHER OF GOD
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 merits of the Holy Virgin : second reason
2 Secondly, we are drawn towards gratitude by the sweet fragrance of her Greatness from which her numerous gifts drop down from Heaven like dew. It has been fittingly said in this connection that the task of gathering in the beautiful harvest of divine blessings belongs to the Graces, the daughters of Heaven, and that a simple feeling of heartfelt thanks within us is all that is required to compensate for our inability to satisfy our debt of gratitude. There was once a Temple built by the ancients to honour Jupiter in the city of Cyzicus, near the Straits of Gallipoli. The Temple was covered all over with precious stones but they were set and arranged with such skill and artistry that there was not one which did not reflect light upon the statue of the God being adored. By this they wished to convey the idea that the blessings of heaven are as good as lost if there is no return to the source of their origin, and God would be enriching us with his gifts in vain if he did not receive in return some tribute of glory. Consider how vessels laden with precious cargoes arriving from foreign lands are stopped and required to pay tolls. In much the same way, souls who have received the most beautiful graces from God are also those most obliged to make a faithful payment of Heaven’s dues. I have to confess, however, that if there were an attempt to draw from from all the powers of our souls a distillation of the gratitude found therein, this would not amount to the least drop of the sweetness coming from the loving heart of the Mother of Grace. Does this mean then that we should lose heart at being unable to do everything we might like to do? Are we to abandon everything because our own feelings will never rise to the heights of the benefits we have received? On the contrary, it must for us be a source of singular satisfaction that she should be so incomparably higher than our human powers can reach and that we should be so far from being able to attain the greatness of her merits. What is needed is for us to pay our debt of gratitude as much with what we cannot do as with what we can; since here what is willed is accepted for what has been done, and what the will desires to do is valued as much as what it can actually offer in practice.
The claims of the Holy Virgin : third reason
3 Thirdly, we are obliged to show gratitude by reason of the just claims of the Holy Virgin who chose us for her beloved children only on condition that her love for us should be matched by love and appreciation on our part. Just as God made a promise in connection with David’s son Solomon as follows : I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son[1] , in the same way she promises us that she will always be a most dear, loving and faithful Mother provided that we behave like true children towards her. This means that we will not simply accept the favours she sends us, but that we will respond with love, returning our grateful affection as best we can to her who is the source of these blessings. Any child who does not feel in this way is not really a child but more like a moving statue or an animated rock; or if he is a child, then he cannot be legitimate; or if he passes himself off as such, then all he can expect in the end is to miss out on all the hopes of those who are true children by adoption. It would be better for them to die than to than to place themselves in such a state as to practise deception by falsely claiming the honourable title of children of the MOTHER OF GOD. We pray that in her goodness she will protect us from such a fate and we pray too that, amongst all the other obligations we may have towards her, we remember this one : to show esteem and gratitude for the blessings that come to us through her hands in every way that she might want us to.
Footnotes
[1] 2 Kings (2 Samuel) vii. 14.
The fruits of gratitude : fourth reason
4 Finally, we are obliged by the affection we have for ourselves since the only way of remaining in her good grace and of enabling a continual growth in her favours is to show that the ones we have received are deeply rooted in our memory. In his consideration of Hebrew tradition, St Jerome[1] notes that :
The terrible illness with which Ezechias was sick even to death[2] was a just punishment for his ingratitude. He had gained a great victory over the Assyrians in which Heaven had appeared on his side but he had made no effort whatsoever to offer songs of praise and thanksgiving to God – as Moses had done after seeing Pharaoh drowned in the waters of the Red Sea, or Deborah after defeating the Captain Sisara, or Anna the wife of Elcana after having received as a gift from God her little baby Samuel, fruit of prayers and of blessings.
The author of Wisdom expresses this idea very effectively when he says that the hope of the unthankful shall melt away as the winter’s ice, and shall run off as unprofitable water[3] without penetrating the ground.
St Bernard[4] declares that:
Ungratefulness is the mortal enemy of the soul and any progress that it might make. It erases merits, ruins virtues and withdraws benefits; it is like a wind causing the fount of goodness to run dry and the dew of mercy to evaporate. It causes the flow of graces from Heaven to be blocked off.
St John Chrystostom[5] contrasts this with:
gratitude, which is a treasure of inestimable value and a source of blessings that can never be exhausted.
This is why the great St Basil[6] weighs most wisely the following words from Psalm 115: What shall I render to the Lord, for all the things he hath rendered unto me? In his commentary, he says that:
Our offerings of gratitude oblige God to confer new benefits upon us and even if he receives from us only that which is due to him as interest on what he has given us, He is nevertheless so generous towards us that He deposits it in our savings so that it forms part of our capital held with Him. This means that there can be no movement of our heart which does not result in profit with Him.
All this must also be understood of the Queen of Heaven insofar as she partakes of the goodness and generosity of God. From this it follows that in proportion as we love ourselves and seek our own interest, then we should to the same extent apply ourselves to multiplying whatever talents[7] we receive from Heavenly graces in the holy and divine bank. The Queen Mother, who holds the keys to her Son’s savings bank, calls upon us ; our own personal interests urge us; God Himself wills this; and if the voice of conscience may be heard, it would say not to let slip these wondrous occasions available for the profit of souls. What is there which could possibly frustrate our affections or paralyse our wishes?
Footnotes
[1] Lib. II, Commentar. in Isaiam.
[2] Isai. xxxviii.
[3] Wisdom xvi. 29.
[4] Serm. 52 in Cant.
[5] Homil. 1 ad pop. Antioch.
[6] Homil. 5 in Martyrem Julittam.
[7] Cf. Matt. xxv. 15 et seq.
5 Since we have seen all sorts of holy considerations which oblige us to show our gratitude towards the MOTHER OF GOD, I believe the time has now come to examine the means we have available to us for putting this royal virtue into practice.
[End of Chapter 1]
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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.
The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
© Peter Bloor 2025
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